The Choir of Canterbury Cathedral
Jamie Rogers organ
David Newsholme conductor
RESONUS Res 10377
Matthew Martin has had a varied career in music, the earlier portion closely involved in cathedral music. After six years as Assistant Master of Music at Westminster Cathedral, he decided to concentrate more on composition. He is currently Precentor and Director of Music at Gonville & Gaius College, Cambridge.
A private organ pupil of Marie-Claire Alain, he appears as soloist on one of Priory Records Great European Organs series, playing a varied programme on the Walker organ in Brompton Oratory. He has received an enviable number of commissions for the Cheltenham Music Festival, The Tallis Scholars and the Gabrieli Consort and Players, and is a winner of the Choral Category in the BBC Music Magazine Awards in 2019.
This selection of his choral music includes settings of well-known texts such as the Mass, Ave Verum Corpus, When David Heard, the Preces and Responses and the evening canticles. For the contemporary composer, the task of breathing new life into words so frequently set by others must be formidable. The use of unusual texts makes comparison with other works more problematic. Here Martin succeeds in making these settings very much his own. If heard in the sequence in which the works have been recorded, similar in part to what one would encounter in a service of Evensong, one is constantly struck by the relationship between the familiarity of the words and the freshness of the musical settings.
I found Martin’s approach to the words of ‘Never weather-beaten sail’ of particular interest. The first composer one thinks of in connection with this text is Thomas Campion, who was also the author of the words; the second is Hubert Parry, who included it in his Songs of Farewell. However, Martin seems to strike out on his own, as he does in the opening track, Psalm 150. This is a splendidly festive piece with an arresting part for Canterbury Cathedral’s Solo Tuba.
While on the subject of the organ, Harrison & Harrison’s recent work is vividly displayed in the colourful accompaniments provided by Jamie Rogers. This is in no way excessive, but there is plenty of variety and the balance between the choir and organ is never less than perfect, even where a great deal of power is called for. Yet there is no sense of artificiality in the sound, a remarkable feat given the size and acoustic characteristics of the building. The organ sounds magnificent, but never overwhelms.
This is a very satisfying disc, full of very approachable, yet exciting contemporary music superbly performed. Warmest congratulations to all those involved.
Review by Martyn Strachan