The Micklegate Singers’ 50th anniversary CD
“The Micklegates are celebrating their 50th anniversary this season, as well they might.
“This disc, a generous 80 minutes, with 26 tracks, is a representative selection from live concerts given between 2003 and 2012.
“It is remarkable how homogenous the choir’s sound has remained over that period, all of it under Nicholas Carter’s direction. In keeping with the intention of its founder, Ronald Perrin, this remarkable varied programme often flirts with the fringes of the repertory and is all the more exciting for that.
“At its centre lies two larger pieces, Arvo Pärt’s The Beatitudes, which builds a sense of prayerful adoration towards its powerful organ conclusion, and Sumsion’s In Exile, with the Israelites discovering muscle while weeping in Babylon. Negro spirituals, Britten, Bernstein, Wood’s triumphal Hail, Gladdening Light, three witty epigrams by Nicholas Maw, Holst, a Tudor motet, even Swingle, are all part of this eclectic mix.”
- Review of The Micklegate Singers: Fifty Years On, The Press, York
The Micklegate Singers: 50 Years On
Didn’t my Lord (Debbie Ballantyne — Soprano) — Richard Allain
To Daffodils (Flower Songs) — Benjamin Britten
The succession of the 4 sweet months (Flower Songs) — Benjamin Britten
En une seule fleur (Les Chansons des Roses) — Morten Lauridsen
Hilli-Ho! (5 Partsongs) — Frank Bridge
Calme des nuits — Camille Saint-Saëns
The Barrel of the Drum (Making of the Drum: Anne Parkinson — Soprano) — Bob Chilcott
Steal Away (5 Negro Spirituals: Sarah Sketchley — Soprano, Chris Sketchley — Tenor) — Michael Tippett
Sanctus (Latin Choruses from the Lark: Kate Woodruff — Mezzo) — Leonard Bernstein
Requiem (Latin Choruses from the Lark) — Leonard Bernstein
The Beatitudes (Stephen Power — Organ) — Arvo Pärt
In Exile — Herbert Sumsion
Svyete tikhii — Pyotr Tchaikovsky
Hail Gladdening Light — Charles Wood
In Manus Tuas — John Sheppard
Lamentations for Holy Saturday I — Tomas de Victoria
Three Verses — Richard Rodney Bennett
Ave Maria — Javier Busto
El Grillo — Josquin des Prez
On a Noisy Polemic (5 Epigrams) — Nicholas Maw
On the Death of Robert Ruisseaux (5 Epigrams) — Nicholas Maw
On a Hen-pecked Country Squire (5 Epigrams) — Nicholas Maw
On Hillissuvi (Sûgismaastikud) — Veljo Tormis
L’amour de moi — Ward Swingle
Let there be love — Lionel Rand arr. Ned Bennett
Swansea Town (6 Choral Folk Songs) — Gustav Holst