Joubert: South of the Line

Joubert’s disturbing anti-war statement South of the Line (1985) is the major work on this powerfully performed disc of the composer’s choral music. — BBC Music Magazine, May 2017, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 3rd Mar 2017
Catalogue No: SOMMCD0166
Label: Somm
Length: 79 minutes

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Joubert: O Praise God in His Holiness, Op. 52

Work length1:48

$1.00

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$1.75

Nicholas Wearne (organ)
Birmingham Conservatoire Chamber Choir
Paul Spicer
Recorded: 27 June 2016
Recording Venue: Adrian Boult Hall, Birmingham Conservatoire, Birmingham, England, United Kingdom

O Praise God in His Holiness, Op. 52

Track length1:48

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Joubert: O Lorde, the maker of al thing

Work length4:14

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Nicholas Wearne (organ)
Birmingham Conservatoire Chamber Choir
Paul Spicer
Recorded: 28 June 2016
Recording Venue: St Alban the Martyr, Highgate, Birmingham, England, United Kingdom

Joubert: There Is No Rose

Work length2:43

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Birmingham Conservatoire Chamber Choir
Paul Spicer
Recorded: 28 June 2016
Recording Venue: St Alban the Martyr, Highgate, Birmingham, England, United Kingdom

Joubert: Incantation, Op. 22

Work length8:24

$3.00

$3.90

$5.25

Catherine Liggins (soprano)
Birmingham Conservatoire Chamber Choir
Paul Spicer
Recorded: 28 June 2016
Recording Venue: St Alban the Martyr, Highgate, Birmingham, England, United Kingdom

Track length2:56

$1.00

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II.

Track length2:23

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

III.

Track length3:05

$1.00

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Joubert: Pilgrimage Song, Op. 169

Work length6:49

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Andrew Randall (baritone)
Birmingham Conservatoire Chamber Choir
Paul Spicer
Recorded: 28 June 2016
Recording Venue: St Alban the Martyr, Highgate, Birmingham, England, United Kingdom

Joubert: 3 Portraits, Op. 97

Work length8:54

$3.00

$3.90

$5.25

Chloe Salvidge (soprano)
Birmingham Conservatoire Chamber Choir
Paul Spicer
Recorded: 28 June 2016
Recording Venue: St Alban the Martyr, Highgate, Birmingham, England, United Kingdom

No. 1. To Mistress Isabel Pennell

Track length3:36

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

No. 2. To Mistress Margery Wentworth

Track length3:25

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

No. 3. To Mistress Margaret Hussey

Track length1:53

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Joubert: Be not Afeard, Op. 179

Work length5:02

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Alexis Cooling (soprano)
Birmingham Conservatoire Chamber Choir
Paul Spicer
Recorded: 28 June 2016
Recording Venue: St Alban the Martyr, Highgate, Birmingham, England, United Kingdom

Joubert: Sonnet, Op. 123

Work length7:13

$2.00

$2.60

$3.50

Alexis Cooling (soprano), Ania Szypula (soprano), Robert Tilson (tenor), Andrew Randall (baritone)
Birmingham Conservatoire Chamber Choir
Paul Spicer
Recorded: 28 June 2016
Recording Venue: St Alban the Martyr, Highgate, Birmingham, England, United Kingdom

Joubert: This is the Gate of the Lord, Op. 164

Work length3:09

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Birmingham Conservatoire Chamber Choir
Paul Spicer
Recorded: 28 June 2016
Recording Venue: St Alban the Martyr, Highgate, Birmingham, England, United Kingdom

Joubert: Autumn Rain, Op. 105

Work length4:45

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Domonkos Csabay (piano)
Birmingham Conservatoire Chamber Choir
Paul Spicer
Recorded: 27 June 2016
Recording Venue: Adrian Boult Hall, Birmingham Conservatoire, Birmingham, England, United Kingdom

Joubert: South of the Line, Op. 109

Work length26:13

$5.00

$6.50

$8.75

Domonkos Csabay (piano), György Hodzso (piano), Matthew Firkins (timpani), Harry Bentley (percussion), Stephen Plummer (percussion), Miriam Kitchener (percussion), George Kirkham (percussion), Chloe Salvidge (soprano), Timothy Emberson (baritone)
Birmingham Conservatoire Chamber Choir
Paul Spicer
Recorded: 27 June 2016
Recording Venue: Adrian Boult Hall, Birmingham Conservatoire, Birmingham, England, United Kingdom

No. 1. Embarcation

Track length5:07

$1.00

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$1.75

No. 2. A Wife in London

Track length5:47

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No. 3. Drummer Hodge

Track length6:05

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No. 4. The Man He Killed

Track length2:22

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$1.75

No. 5. A Christmas Ghost Story

Track length6:52

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

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SOMM’s celebration of John Joubert’s 90th birthday this month brings to the catalogue yet more new riches, this time no less than seven première recordings of his choral music. South of the Line (together with Autumn Rain) was recorded last June at the Birmingham Conservatoire and poignant is the fact that it was commissioned from the composer for the opening of the Adrian Boult Hall and the last music heard there for this recording, before its demolition.

Choirs are at the heart of John Joubert’s music and it is by his choral music that he seems to communicate most directly with audiences. He once commented. ‘Communication is important to me. I want to be understood, enjoyed and used’. It’s perhaps for this reason, this capacity for dramatic articulation of meaning, that his choral music holds such a certain place in the listeners’ hearts. Indeed he has composed choral music throughout his career winning, in 1952, a Novello Anthem competition with O Lorde, the Maker of Al Thing set to a poem by Henry VIII. The lullaby-like There is no Rose (1954) is another work with a firm place in the English choral repertoire, and another setting of an ancient text. Incantation, Pilgrimage Song and Three Portraits as well as Sonnet, This is the Gate of the Lord, Autumn Rain and Be Not Afeard, his most recent work a commission for Novello honouring the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, are all first recordings.

But perhaps the most powerful and extraordinary of all the works on this disc is South of the Line. Commissioned by Ex-Cathedra in 1985 it receives here a searing interpretation by Birmingham Conservatoire Chamber Choir under their conductor, Paul Spicer. Joubert uses texts from five poems by Thomas Hardy who wrote them in response to the outbreak of the Anglo-Boer War at the turn of the century. The music is an unabashed anti-war statement with a cataclysmic setting of words, consisting of equal parts grief and scathing irony, pitting the choir against a battery of percussion -- even the two pianos are essentially treated as drums. The music they evoke from the South African-English John Joubert is a compelling and a powerful indictment against the inhumanity of war.

Reviews

May 2017

Joubert’s disturbing anti-war statement South of the Line (1985) is the major work on this powerfully performed disc of the composer’s choral music.

May 2017

It’s [South of the Line] intensity presents a challenging test to singers, and Paul Spicer guides his group to the heart of the composer, the frequently operatic approach of the sopranos coming into its own…memorable writing.

May 2017

The writing is always full of rigour and, despite the obvious influence of Britten, it could never be parodied. Joubert almost always has a crafty solution in the final bar of a work or movement

March 2017

This is a diverse collection of choral pieces by a master composer. All the music on this disc…is very fine indeed…This is a fine tribute to John Joubert as he marks his ninetieth birthday.

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