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
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Britten: A Ceremony of Carols, Missa brevis & Other Choral Works
Westminster Cathedral Choir, David Hill
Classical - Released by Hyperion on 1 Jan 1987
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Christmas in London
Classical - Released by Music Manager on 23 Oct 2018
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Vierne, Widor & Dupré: Choral Music
Westminster Cathedral Choir, James O'Donnell
Classical - Released by Hyperion on 1 Feb 1997
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Morales: Missa Queramus cum pastoribus & Other Sacred Music
Westminster Cathedral Choir, James O'Donnell
Classical - Released by Hyperion on 1 Jun 1993
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Masterpieces of Portuguese Polyphony, Vol. 2
Westminster Cathedral Choir, James O'Donnell
Classical - Released by Hyperion on 1 Feb 1992
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Christmas Vespers at Westminster Cathedral
Westminster Cathedral Choir, Matthew Martin, Martin Baker
Classical - Released by Hyperion on 2 Oct 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Palestrina: Music for Advent & Christmas
Westminster Cathedral Choir, Martin Baker
Classical - Released by Hyperion on 1 Sep 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
Classical - Released by Hyperion on 1 Apr 1986
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Victoria: Requiem (Officium Defunctorum, 1605)
Westminster Cathedral Choir, David Hill
Classical - Released by Hyperion on 1 Aug 1987
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Panufnik : Westminster Mass & Sacred Works
Choral Music (Choirs) - Released by Warner Classics International on 10 Sep 1999
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Poulenc: Mass in G; Motets for Christmas & Lent etc.
Westminster Cathedral Choir, James O'Donnell
Classical - Released by Hyperion on 1 Mar 1994
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Victoria: Responsories for Tenebrae
Classical - Released by Past Classics on 1 Mar 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Panis angelicus – Favourite Motets from Westminster Cathedral
Westminster Cathedral Choir, James O'Donnell
Classical - Released by Hyperion on 1 Nov 1993
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Masterpieces of Mexican Polyphony
Westminster Cathedral Choir, James O'Donnell
Classical - Released by Hyperion on 2 Jul 1990
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Duruflé: Requiem & Messe Cum jubilo
Westminster Cathedral Choir, James O'Donnell
Classical - Released by Hyperion on 1 Mar 1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Palestrina: Missa Papae Marcelli & Missa brevis
Westminster Cathedral Choir, David Hill
Classical - Released by Hyperion on 1 Feb 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
Classical - Released by Ad Fontes on 23 Feb 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
Classical - Released by Hyperion on 1 Feb 1994
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Palestrina: Missa Aeterna Christi munera & Other Sacred Music
Westminster Cathedral Choir, James O'Donnell
Classical - Released by Hyperion on 19 Aug 1991
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Jean Langlais: Missa Salve regina & Messe solennelle
Westminster Cathedral Choir, David Hill
Classical - Released by Hyperion on 1 Jul 1988
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Victoria: Missa Trahe me post te & Other Sacred Music
Westminster Cathedral Choir, James O'Donnell
Classical - Released by Hyperion on 1 Oct 1994
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo