Westminster Cathedral Choir
London's Westminster Cathedral is the leading Catholic Church in England. The Benedictine monks who built and owned Westminster Abbey reclaimed part of the marsh around Westminster. Over the centuries, the land has had several uses. The monks operated a market and a fairgrounds there. After the Protestant Reformation in England, the land was used as a maze, a pleasure garden, and as a bull-baiting ring.
Westminster Abbey (by that time property of the Church of England) sold the land for use as a prison. When the prison was retired approaching the turn of the 19th century, the Roman Catholic Church acquired the land in 1884 for a new major Cathedral Church. It is actually one of the newest major churches in London. Its design, by John Francis Bently, is based on early Christian Byzantine architecture, with a strikingly tall bell tower. Its foundation stone was laid in 1895, and the Cathedral was consecrated in 1910. Its interior is not yet completed.
From the initial planning of the Cathedral by Cardinal Herbert Vaughan, music was given great weight in the church's activities. Cardinal Vaughan had been inspired by the Solesmes Abbey's revival of Gregorian Chant and by the accomplishments of the Anglican Church's choral tradition. Music is the largest single item in the Cathedral's budget. It operates a full-time choral school for its choristers. Westminster Cathedral is the only church in the world that celebrates a fully sung Mass every day.
The Westminster Cathedral Choir, among a few others, can credibly be called the best choir in Europe. Sir Richard Terry, the church's first Master of Music, was a devoted scholar of pre-Baroque polyphonic church music and revived choral masterpieces of Tudor-era English composers and their contemporaries on the Continent. He also vigorously championed new composition. Over the years composers of the stature of Ralph Vaughan Williams, Lennoc Berkeley, Gustav Holst, Benjamin Britten, Herbert Howells, William Mathias, and David Sanger have composed for the Cathedral Choir
It made one of the earliest British choral recordings, an acoustic disc cut in 1908. In the compact disc age, it has made a highly acclaimed series of recordings for the British label Hyperion, ranging in repertory from Renaissance polyphony to music of Britten, Poulenc, Langlais, and Stravinsky. It sings concerts and tours as its church service schedule permits, and frequently broadcasts. It joined the Choir of St. Paul's Cathedral (the largest Anglican Church) in 1992 to inaugurate that church's newly-restored organ.
© Joseph Stevenson /TiVo
-
Britten: A Ceremony of Carols, Missa brevis & Other Choral Works
Westminster Cathedral Choir, David Hill
Klassik - Erschienen bei Hyperion am 01.01.1987
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Christmas in London
Klassik - Erschienen bei Music Manager am 23.10.2018
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Vierne, Widor & Dupré: Choral Music
Westminster Cathedral Choir, James O'Donnell
Klassik - Erschienen bei Hyperion am 01.02.1997
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Morales: Missa Queramus cum pastoribus & Other Sacred Music
Westminster Cathedral Choir, James O'Donnell
Klassik - Erschienen bei Hyperion am 01.06.1993
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Masterpieces of Portuguese Polyphony, Vol. 2
Westminster Cathedral Choir, James O'Donnell
Klassik - Erschienen bei Hyperion am 01.02.1992
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Christmas Vespers at Westminster Cathedral
Westminster Cathedral Choir, Matthew Martin, Martin Baker
Klassik - Erschienen bei Hyperion am 02.10.2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Palestrina: Music for Advent & Christmas
Westminster Cathedral Choir, Martin Baker
Klassik - Erschienen bei Hyperion am 01.09.2003
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Britten: A Boy Was Born; Rejoice in the Lamb; Festival Te Deum
Corydon Singers, Westminster Cathedral Choir, Matthew Best
Klassik - Erschienen bei Hyperion am 01.04.1986
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Victoria: Requiem (Officium Defunctorum, 1605)
Westminster Cathedral Choir, David Hill
Klassik - Erschienen bei Hyperion am 01.08.1987
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Panufnik : Westminster Mass & Sacred Works
Chorwerk (für den Chor) - Erschienen bei Warner Classics International am 10.09.1999
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Poulenc: Mass in G; Motets for Christmas & Lent etc.
Westminster Cathedral Choir, James O'Donnell
Klassik - Erschienen bei Hyperion am 01.03.1994
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Victoria: Responsories for Tenebrae
Klassik - Erschienen bei Past Classics am 01.03.2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Panis angelicus – Favourite Motets from Westminster Cathedral
Westminster Cathedral Choir, James O'Donnell
Klassik - Erschienen bei Hyperion am 01.11.1993
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Masterpieces of Mexican Polyphony
Westminster Cathedral Choir, James O'Donnell
Klassik - Erschienen bei Hyperion am 02.07.1990
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Duruflé: Requiem & Messe Cum jubilo
Westminster Cathedral Choir, James O'Donnell
Klassik - Erschienen bei Hyperion am 01.03.1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Palestrina: Missa Papae Marcelli & Missa brevis
Westminster Cathedral Choir, David Hill
Klassik - Erschienen bei Hyperion am 01.02.1988
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Vexilla regis: A Sequence of Music from Palm Sunday to Holy Saturday
Martin Baker, Peter Stevens, Westminster Cathedral Choir
Klassik - Erschienen bei Ad Fontes am 23.02.2024
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Lassus: Missa Bell' Amfitrit' altera – Festal Sacred Music of Bavaria
Westminster Cathedral Choir, His Majestys Sagbutts & Cornetts, James O'Donnell
Klassik - Erschienen bei Hyperion am 01.02.1994
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Palestrina: Missa Aeterna Christi munera & Other Sacred Music
Westminster Cathedral Choir, James O'Donnell
Klassik - Erschienen bei Hyperion am 19.08.1991
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Victoria: Tenebrae Responsories for Holy Week
Westminster Cathedral Choir, David Hill
Klassik - Erschienen bei Hyperion am 01.04.1989
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Jean Langlais: Missa Salve regina & Messe solennelle
Westminster Cathedral Choir, David Hill
Klassik - Erschienen bei Hyperion am 01.07.1988
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo