John McCabe - Visions (Choral Music)

John McCabe (1939-2015)

Visions (Choral Music)

Three Marian Carols (1964; 1973; 2008)

Soprano Vocals – Margaret Feaviour

Mezzo-soprano Vocals – Jacqueline Fox

Tenor Vocals – Edward Goater

Bass Vocals – Stephen Charlesworth 

Mangan Triptych (1979; 1980; 1983)

Amen/Alleluia (1991) 5:19

Proud Songsters (1989) 2:41

The Lily-White Rose (2009)

Soprano Vocals – Emma Tring

The Morning Watch (1968)

Organ – Iain Farrington

The Evening Watch (2003)

Organ – Iain Farrington

Great Lord Of Lords (1967)

Organ – Iain Farrington

A Hymne To God The Father (1966)

Soprano Vocals – Olivia Robinson

Tenor Vocals – Edward Goater

The Last And Greatest Herald (2008)

Organ – Iain Farrington

BBC Singers

David Hill

Recorded at St. Paul's Church, Knightsbridge, London, 19 February 2009 and 2 July 2010.

Review:

Instrumental music is John McCabe’s usual stamping ground but over the years he has produced a fair crop of choral works, mostly of the short, occasional variety, and these have generally slipped into the catalogues on compilation discs alongside the music of other composers. Here we have wall-to-wall McCabe choral pieces, mostly a cappella but with a handful accompanied on the organ by the ever-dependable Iain Farrington. While they are beautifully sung by the BBC Singers and carefully shaped by David Hill’s attentive direction (occasionally rather too attentive, as in the fussy stop-start phrasing of the first of the Mangan Triptych), the cumulative effect is not wholly rewarding.

McCabe favours closely packed harmonies and gentle washes of conglomerate choral tone; all very well when presented in the company of others but irritatingly samey when heard in uninterrupted succession. The fact that what are mostly choral miniatures (few individual songs approach the six-minute mark) also calls into question the choice of such a weighty body of singers. Excellent as they are – and make no mistake about it, the BBC Singers are a tremendously vital choral force for good – these 24 voices frequently overwhelm the often intimate nature of the music and their propensity for working up to mighty climaxes in even the tiniest of musical structures seriously over-eggs the cake.

Gramophone