Choir of Merton College, Oxford, Benjamin Nicholas & Britten Sinfonia – Orchestral Anthems: Elgar | Finzi | Dyson | Howells (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 55:06 minutes | 948 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Delphian Records
For the Choir of Merton College, Oxford’s first collaboration with Britten Sinfonia, Benjamin Nicholas has brought together a collection of sacred works from the first half of the twentieth century.A little-known fact is that these stalwarts of the English repertory were either originally intended to be heard with orchestra, or subsequently orchestrated by their composer or a close colleague.
Written for enthronements, coronations and the nation’s grandest choral festivals, these national ‘standards’ arehere brought back to life, their orchestral accompaniments affording them the richness, pomp and majesty associated with that epoch.
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Choir of Merton College, Oxford & Benjamin Nicholas – Ian Venables: Requiem, Herbert Howells: Anthems for Choir & Orchestra (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:17:28 minutes | 1,23 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Delphian Records
Conductor Benjamin Nicholas draws parallels between the familiar English choral sound of Howells and that of contemporary composer Ian Venables. Venables’ Requiem has already been warmly received by critics in a 2020 recording with just organ accompaniment. Now, Nicholas and his Merton College choir present it in an orchestrated version made specially for this recording. The Howells items here are also premiere recordings: new instrumental accompaniments to two of his Four Anthems, in arrangements by Howells scholars Howard Eckdahl and Jonathan Clinch, illuminate and intensify his rich choral writing like back-lighting on a stained-glass window, and they are complemented by the first recording of Howells’ original orchestration of The House of the Mind – a chance to hear one of his major underperformed works, introspective yet dramatic.
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The Girl Choristers of Merton College, Oxford & Benjamin Nicholas – In the Stillness: A Merton Christmas (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:10:16 minutes | 1,14 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © 2022 Delphian Records Ltd.
In the stillness of a midnight stable, a babe is born … In the stillness of an Oxford chapel on a winter’s afternoon, a girl’s voice sings. The newest star in Oxford’s – and Delphian’s – choral firmament, the girl choristers of Merton College have been singing services under the directorship of Benjamin Nicholas for less than five years: in their debut album recording, supported by the lower voices of the Chapel Choir, they tell once more in music from across the centuries the timeless Christmas story of light, hope and joy for a troubled world.
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