CD Launched to Help Fund Choristers
‘Jubilate: 500 years of cathedral music’ is top of the charts!
St Paul’s Cathedral Choir joined forces with 50 young choristers from cathedrals across the UK for the album ‘Jubilate’ which has shot to the top of the classical charts.
Every copy sold will raise money for the Friends of Cathedral Music’s ‘Diamond Fund for Choristers’ which aims to help young choral singers and secure the future of cathedral music. It is supported by Classic FM presenter Alexander Armstrong – a former choirboy himself – who hails becoming a chorister as “the greatest leg-up a child can be given in life”. FCM has been making helpful financial contributions to cathedral music since it was founded in 1956 and is hoping this exciting initiative will gets lots of generous support!
The album, released by Decca and Classic FM, celebrates 500 years of cathedral music with a host of famous choral tunes spanning five centuries – from Thomas Tallis’ Salvator Mundi to Paul Mealor’s Ubi Caritas, with Handel, Mendelssohn, Vaughan Williams and more between. There is also a special arrangement by John Rutter of A Gaelic Blessing, given its first performance here, and sung by Aled Jones. Most of the music chosen for the album was written by composers who themselves were former choristers, from William Byrd and Henry Purcell (Westminster) to William Walton (Christ Church, Oxford).
Choristers of Britain feature on four tracks – Handel’s Zadok The Priest, Parry’s I Was Glad and Rutter’s A Gaelic Blessing.
Aled Jones says:
“What an amazing place to record an album! I’ve never seen so many choristers from cathedrals all around the country. When I first heard them sing all together, it was phenomenal – there were tears in people’s eyes, it was just so moving. It is wonderful to capture that on an album, and for me to sing with the choir as well was just fantastic.”
Andrew Carwood, Director of Music at St Paul’s Cathedral, adds:
“I hope this album gives listeners a glimpse into the little bit of heaven that we try to create every day in St Paul’s Cathedral.”
So here’s what you will find on the album:
- Zadok the Priest – Handel*
- Hear my Prayer I – Mendelssohn
- Hear my Prayer II: O For the Wings of a Dove – Mendelssohn
- Justorum Animae – Stanford
- Hosanna to the Son of David – Weelkes
- Salvator Mundi – Tallis
- O God thou art my God – Purcell
- Lord let me know mine end – Greene
- Greater Love Hath No Man – Ireland
- O taste and see – Vaughan Williams
- Evening Hymn – Balfour Gardiner
- Jubilate Deo – Walton
- The Lord is my Shepherd – Goodall
- The Lord Bless You and Keep You – Rutter
- Ubi Caritas – Mealor
- Gaelic Blessing (full choir) – Rutter*
- I was glad – Parry *
- Gaelic Blessing (with Aled Jones) – Rutter*
*with The Cathedral Choristers of Britain