Leighton - The World’s Desire - Hyperion: CDA67641 - CD or download

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Written in 1978 for the West Riding Cathedrals Festival, A Sequence for All Saints is a major score for large choir and organ, its five sections running continuously and containing some of Leighton's... — Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 More…

Release Date: 28th Apr 2008
Catalogue No: CDA67641
Label: Hyperion
Length: 76 minutes

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Leighton: Sequence for All Saints, Op. 75

Work length24:24

$5.50

$7.50

David Bednall (organ), Stephen Foulkes (baritone), Jacob Coton (treble)
Wells Cathedral Choir, Wells Cathedral Choir ; Wells Cathedral School Chapel Choir
Matthew Owens

I. Introit

Track length4:20

$1.10

$1.50

II. Gradual

Track length3:27

$1.10

$1.50

III. Offertory

Track length3:03

$1.10

$1.50

IV. Communion

Track length7:25

$1.10

$1.50

V. Finale

Track length6:09

$1.10

$1.50

Leighton: Chorale Prelude on Rockingham

Work length3:03

$1.10

$1.50

David Bednall (organ)

Leighton: O God, enfold me in the sun

Work length3:56

$1.10

$1.50

David Bednall (organ)
Wells Cathedral Choir
Matthew Owens

Leighton: Morning Canticles

Work length15:03

$3.30

$4.50

David Bednall (organ)
Wells Cathedral Choir
Matthew Owens

I. Venite

Track length3:36

$1.10

$1.50

II. Te Deum laudamus

Track length7:39

$1.10

$1.50

III. Jubilate Deo

Track length3:48

$1.10

$1.50

Leighton: The World’s Desire (A Sequence for Epiphany), Op. 91

Work length29:47

$5.50

$7.50

Christopher Sheldrake (bass), Iain Milne (tenor), David Bednall (organ), Léonie Maxwell (soprano), Simon Clulow (countertenor)
Wells Cathedral Choir, Wells Cathedral Choir ; Wells Cathedral School Chapel Choir
Matthew Owens

Part 1 No 1. Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem

Track length8:12

$1.10

$1.50

Part 1 No 2. Bright babe, whose awful beauties make

Track length7:43

$1.10

$1.50

Part 2 No 1. The Christ-child lay on Mary's lap

Track length4:07

$1.10

$1.50

Part 2 No 2. Behold, I send my messenger

Track length2:43

$1.10

$1.50

Part 2 No 3. Today the grace of the spirit

Track length7:02

$1.10

$1.50

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The majestic Sequence for All Saints is a marvellously consolatory work which is cast in a continuous span of five sections. The use of a congregational hymn at the end makes the music a seamless and integral part of worship. The recording of The World’s Desire is the work’s first. This extensive work arose from a commission in which Leighton was requested to write a work that reflected facets of both the Western and Eastern liturgy relating to the Feast of the Epiphany. In the Epiphany story, the Western liturgy places a stronger emphasis on Christ’s divinity as manifested at his baptism in the river Jordan. By comparison the Orthodox liturgy focuses on St John’s image of the Epiphany being ‘the day of light’ with Christ portrayed as ‘the light of men’. This dichotomy presented a particular challenge to Leighton and the result is a stirring, triumphant work which combines the traditions of the Anglican and Russian Orthodox liturgies to great effect.

Reviews

2010

Written in 1978 for the West Riding Cathedrals Festival, A Sequence for All Saints is a major score for large choir and organ, its five sections running continuously and containing some of Leighton's more sumptuous passages alongside those characteristic hallmarks: driving, repetitive rhythms, extended sequences and the piling on of harmonic tension. Larger still – weighing in at around half an hour – is The World's Desire, a BBC commission for a work reflecting facets of both Western and Eastern liturgy relating to the Feast of the Epiphany. It was premiered by the BBC Northern Singers in 1984. Between these come a typically celebratory anthem with a suitably dazzling organ part, O God, enfold me in the sun, a set of three Morning Canticles and an organ piece based on the hymn tune Rockingham.
Matthew Owens has certainly brought the Wells Cathedral Choir to the very peak of excellence; it ranks as probably the finest English cathedral choir at the moment. Supplemented by singers from the Wells Cathedral School Chapel Choir, the two large-scale works are delivered with great power and breadth, David Bednall's organ accompaniments as full of colour and pizzazz as one could want. It all adds up to stunning performances of outstanding music, a composer fully in sympathy with the practicalities of performance and musicians who are utterly at home with this distinctive musical idiom. Leighton's memory is well served in this superb release.

July 2008

Stunning performances of outstanding music, a composer fully in sympathy with the practicalities of performance and musicians who are utterly at home with this distinctive musical idiom. Leighton's memory is well served in this superb release.

Two things stand out in this new release featuring a selection of Kenneth Leighton’s sacred choral music: the inclusion of three first-time recordings and the glorious, energetic performances of the Wells
Cathedral Choir … [The World’s Desire] the return of Heber’s hymn brings both the work and the disc to a close in such a spine-tinglingly awesome fashion that the listener is compelled to hit the ‘play button’ again almost immediately

4th May 2008

Kenneth Leighton died too young. Aged just 58, he left behind a substantial body of high-quality work for orchestra, small ensemble and cathedral choir. We can only wonder what could have come later, but as this disc illustrates, he was already a worthy successor to the great Herbert Howells. The CD takes its title from an Epiphany sequence, and includes fine music for organ and a set of morning canticles never before recorded. Wells Cathedral Choir is in cracking form.

24th May 2008

If the early Symphony for Strings (1949) recalls Tippett or Berkeley, the Concerto for String Orchestra of 12 years later finds him absorbing Continental influences such as Bartók and Martin. Matching the scoring of Poulenc's Organ Concerto, Leighton's own essay in the medium perhaps struggles to distance itself from the Frenchman's work. But all in all it is a revelatory and superbly played disc.
The Wells recording explores the better-known Leighton of cathedral and chapel with consummately sung performances of music that illuminates the liturgy, with able solos and solid organ foundation.

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