Michael Finnissy: Pious Anthems & Voluntaries Cambridge The Choir of St John's College & Andrew Nethsingha

• Michael Finnissy (b. 1946):
• 1 Dum transisset Sabbatum 08:07
• 2 Dum transisset Sabbatum – double 07:49
• 3 Videte miraculum 08:25
• 4 Videte miraculum – double 09:19
• 5 Commentary on ‘Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern’ 04:00
• Herr Christ, der einge Gottessohn:
• 6 Herr Christ, der einge Gottessohn: I. ‘Herr Christ, der einge Gottessohn’ 05:14
• 7 Herr Christ, der einge Gottessohn: II. ‘Ach führe mich, o Gott’ 02:23
• 8 Herr Christ, der einge Gottessohn: III. ‘Ach, ziehe die Seele’ 02:44
• 9 Herr Christ, der einge Gottessohn: IV. ‘O Wunderkraft der Liebe’ 02:16
• 10 Herr Christ, der einge Gottessohn: V. ‘Bald zur Rechten’ 03:24
• 11 Herr Christ, der einge Gottessohn: VI. ‘Für uns ein Mensch geboren’ 03:13
• Michael Finnissy:
• 12 Commentary on BWV 562 05:32
• 13 Plebs angelica 07:59
• 14 Plebs angelica – alternativo 13:30
• Total Runtime 01:23:55

Info for Michael Finnissy: Pious Anthems & Voluntaries

Here, The Choir of St. John’s College, Cambridge perform Finnissy’s deep, rich and fulfilling music – created as part of a residency, which combines evocative works directly inspired by Tudor Music from the choir's library with more free-form inspirations of this material by the composer. It has taken Conductor and Director Andrew Nethsingha four years to gradually learn the pieces on this recording. He says it “has been a deeply enriching experience which I want others to share”.

Michael Finnissy was born in Tulse Hill in 1946. He studied at the Royal College of Music with Bernard Stevens and Humphrey Seale, and in Italy with Roman Vlad. Much of his early work was first performed in France and the Netherlands, while he was working as a freelance repetiteur and pianist for dance-classes. He taught at the Royal Academy of Music, at the universities of Sussex and Southampton, and at the Katholiek Universiteit in Leuven. He has also given summer courses at Dartington, and been resident artist at the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne (Australia). He has been featured composer at the Huddersfield Festival several times, at the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, and many other places across the world, most recently at SICPP in Boston USA.

"I do not feel this breadth of vision or enthusiasm to be at all incompatible with the Victorian Gothic Revival, and hence the chapel I am supposed to celebrate. I might have a greater fondness for William Morris than for the personalities of the Oxford Movement, but their collective responses to the dark times in which they lived continue to resonate in the England of 2015-19." (Michael Finnissy)

The cycle was written over a three year period, and the premiere of the collection as a whole took place in June 2019 to celebrate the 150th Anniversary of St John's College Chapel.

“This is extremely beautiful music - rich, deep, full of colours, emotions and allusions. The music requires time to marinade in the listener’s mind. It has been fascinating to observe the cycle’s evolution, to develop a deep relationship with one composer and to gain an insight into his compositional processes. We are privileged to have had Michael as the College’s Composer in Residence for the past three years." (Andrew Nethsingha)

"It’s great, in the first place, for an institution of this type to have approached a composer whose demands were always likely to challenge it. The Choir of St John’s College rise to those challenges gamely, their advocacy naturally essential to the success of the project. And it is a success. The Taverner parody and its organ double seem to me especially fine, both as compositions and performances." (Gramophone Magazine)

Alfred Harrison, treble
Harry L'Estrange, treble
Philip Tomkinson, treble
Hugh Cutting, counter-tenor
Gopal Kambo, tenor
James Adams, bass
Oliver Morris, bass
James Anderson-Besant, organ
Sarah O'Flynn, flute
Cecily Ward, violin
Glen Dempsey, organ
Choir of St. John's College Cambridge
Andrew Nethsingha, direction

The Choir of St John’s College Cambridge
is one of the finest collegiate choirs in the world – known and loved by millions from its broadcasts, concert tours and 100 recordings. Founded in the 1670s, the Choir is known for its rich, warm and distinctive sound, its expressive interpretations and its ability to sing in a variety of styles. Alongside this discipline, the Choir is particularly proud of its happy, relaxed and mutually supportive atmosphere.

The Choir is directed by Andrew Nethsingha, following in a long line of eminent Directors of Music, recently Dr George Guest, Dr Christopher Robinson and Dr David Hill. The choir's first release on its imprint with Signum Classics, Deo, won the Choral Award at the BBC Music Magazine Awards 2017.

Andrew Nethsingha
Performing in North America, South Africa, the Far East, and throughout Europe, Andrew Nethsingha has been Director of Music at St John’s College, Cambridge since 2007. He has helped to set up a new recording label, ‘St John’s Cambridge,’ in conjunction with Signum. His first disc on the new label, DEO (music by Jonathan Harvey), was a 2017 BBC Music Magazine Award winner. Andrew Nethsingha was a chorister at Exeter Cathedral, under his father’s direction. He later studied at the Royal College of Music, where he won seven prizes, and at St John’s College, Cambridge. He held Organ Scholarships under Christopher Robinson at St George’s Windsor, and George Guest at St John’s, before becoming Assistant Organist at Wells Cathedral. He was subsequently Director of Music at Truro and Gloucester Cathedrals, and Artistic Director of the Gloucester Three Choirs Festival.

Booklet for Michael Finnissy: Pious Anthems & Voluntaries