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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Byrd: The 3 Masses; Ave verum corpus
Westminster Cathedral Choir, Martin Baker
Klassiek - Released by Hyperion on 1 sep. 2014
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Alonso Lobo: Lamentations & Other Sacred Music
Westminster Cathedral Choir, Martin Baker
Klassiek - Released by Hyperion on 27 mei 2016
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Lumen Christi: A Sequence of Music for the Easter Vigil
Westminster Cathedral Choir, Peter Stevens, Simon Johnson
Klassiek - Released by Ad Fontes on 22 mrt. 2024
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Miserere: A Sequence of Music for Lent, St Joseph & the Annunciation
Westminster Cathedral Choir, Martin Baker
Klassiek - Released by Hyperion on 30 dec. 2012
24-Bit 88.2 kHz - Stereo -
Sheppard: Media vita & Other Sacred Music
Westminster Cathedral Choir, Martin Baker
Klassiek - Released by Hyperion on 28 jul. 2017
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
MacMillan: Tenebrae Responsories & Other Choral Works
Westminster Cathedral Choir, Philip Jones Brass Ensemble, Martin Baker
Klassiek - Released by Hyperion on 3 jun. 2013
24-Bit 88.2 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: Exsultate Jubilate; Motets
Emma Kirkby, The Academy Of Ancient Music Chorus, Westminster Cathedral Choir, Academy of Ancient Music, Christopher Hogwood
Klassiek - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 jan. 1984
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Josquin: Missa Pange lingua & Other Works
Westminster Cathedral Choir, James O'Donnell
Klassiek - Released by Hyperion on 1 okt. 1992
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Victoria Masses: Ave maris stella & O quam gloriosum
Westminster Cathedral Choir, David Hill
Klassiek - Released by Hyperion on 1 apr. 1986
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Martin: Mass - Pizzetti: Requiem
Westminster Cathedral Choir, James O'Donnell
Klassiek - Released by Hyperion on 1 jan. 1998
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Allegri: Miserere, etc.
Westminster Cathedral Choir, Choir of King's College, Cambridge, Stephen Cleobury
Klassiek - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 15 apr. 1996
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Fauré: Requiem Op. 48; Messe Basse; Motets; Cantique de Jean Racine
Westminster Cathedral Choir, David Hill
Koormuziek - Released by Musical Concepts on 25 jan. 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
In Honour of Our Lady
Westminster Cathedral Choir, Stephen Cleobury, Andrew Wright
Koormuziek - Released by Griffin Records on 1 jan. 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Adeste fideles: Christmas Music from Westminster Cathedral
Westminster Cathedral Choir, James O'Donnell
Klassiek - Released by Hyperion on 1 okt. 1993
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The First Nowell: Carols from Westminster Cathedral
Westminster Cathedral Choir, David Hill, James O'Donnell
Kerstmuziek - Released by Griffin Records on 24 sep. 2002
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Palestrina: Missa O rex gloriae & Missa Viri Galilaei
Westminster Cathedral Choir, James O'Donnell
Klassiek - Released by Hyperion on 3 mei 1989
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Gregorian Chant from Westminster Cathedral Choir (also from Argentan)
Westminster Cathedral Choir, Stephen Cleobury, Benedictine Nuns of the Abbey of Notre-Dame, d'Argentan, Denise Lebon
Koormuziek - Released by Griffin Records on 1 jan. 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Treasures of the Spanish Renaissance
Westminster Cathedral Choir, David Hill
Klassiek - Released by Hyperion on 1 dec. 1986
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Praetorius: Christmas Music
Westminster Cathedral Choir, The Parley Of Instruments, David Hill
Klassiek - Released by Hyperion on 1 jan. 1987
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Guerrero: Missa De la batalla escoutez & Other Works
Westminster Cathedral Choir, His Majestys Sagbutts & Cornetts, James O'Donnell
Klassiek - Released by Hyperion on 1 apr. 1999
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Victoria: O magnum mysterium & Ascendens Christus in altum
Westminster Cathedral Choir, David Hill
Klassiek - Released by Hyperion on 1 mrt. 1987
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo