COMPOSERS: Britten
LABELS: Chandos
WORKS: A Ceremony of Carols; Missa brevis; Te Deum; A Wedding Anthem; Festival Te Deum
PERFORMER: Finzi Singers/Paul Spicer
CATALOGUE NO: CHAN 9598
This second volume of Chandos’s series is especially valuable in throwing the spotlight on some less frequently heard Britten works. The Jubilate in
E flat, for example, is a delightful miniature written when Britten was just 20. A carol for women’s voices, ‘Sweet was the Song the Virgin Sung’ is even earlier, and shows just how imaginative Britten’s treatment of choral forces was right from the start of his career. The two major works in this collection were both composed for boys’ voices rather than for the – albeit very fresh-voiced – women and countertenors of the Finzi Singers. Both the Missa brevis and A Ceremony of Carols sound slightly odd: almost too easy, and at times too sophisticated, compared with the naive-but-raw treble sound which Britten had in mind. But the ‘medieval pronunciation’ used in the latter work certainly makes one listen with fresh ears to music whose level of ingenuity never ceases to astonish. Chandos’s full-bodied recording does ample justice to Paul Spicer’s accomplished group of just 18 singers, and the generous playing time is a bonus – nine works in all are included. Stephen Maddock