Advent Carol Service (St John's College, Cambridge)

Today is the First Sunday of Advent, & with it comes the first carol service of the new Church year, once again from St John's College, Cambridge •

Having been impressed by these services in previous years, i was disappointed to find this occasion to be surprisingly bland, particularly the selection of carols which was, in my view, neither impressive nor imaginative • They began with a version of Es ist ein’ Ros’ entsprungen that i've not heard before, by David Nield • The tune is the familiar German original, but one's immediately struck by both the slow tempo as well as the presence of a saxophone—& if that suggests the populist horrors of Officium, it's not actually as bad as that • Nonetheless, as the work progresses, the sax part feels increasingly redundant, particularly in the final verse where it's entirely outclassed by the richness of the choir • Another new addition to the programme was an arrangement of The Cherry Tree Carol that finds Stephen Cleobury in John Rutter mode, although it refrains from full-on tweeness (the excessive final rallentando didn't help, however), whereas Otto Goldschmidt's lovely A Tender Shoot, last heard in 2009's service, was very welcome; the performance this time wasn't exactly delicate, but the choir was beautifully restrained, nicely accenting the harmonic twist towards the end of each verse • Anthony Milner's Out of your sleep was also last heard two years ago; loud & jolly, not subtle nor terribly uplifting, it really is frightfully English • Yet another repeat from 2009 was Anthony Swayne's setting of Adam lay ibounden, & while it's so, so good not be to hearing Boris Ord's version (which really could do with being put away for 50 years to give us all a break from it), the piece still seems as flawed as it did last time around; the choir's performance was undeniably superior on this occasion, but the work still feels compositionally half-hearted & mechanical, with only the opening & conclusion live up to its lyrical aspirations • Christopher Robinson's subtle reworking of Vaughan Williams' The Truth from Above was highly effective (although the final verse was somewhat overcooked), as was Francisco Guerrero's motet Rorate cœli, given a bold performance • It was at first a little hard to listen to Mendelssohn's How lovely are the messengers with a straight face—at the start, the male altos were ridiculous, sounding like a clutch of over-camp squawkers—but the rest of this dance-like piece was an absolute delight •

This year's newly-commissioned carol came from Jonathan Harvey, who explored the Annunciation through words by the Orcadian poet Edwin Muir • It's a stunning text, & Harvey clothes it in an emphatically melodic music, passing it between solo voices, creating an intimate effect • Part of the second stanza ("Immediacy of strangest strangeness...") brings the voices together, & the prosaic third stanza leads to a brief flurry of rhythmic interest, the words curt to the point of being half-spoken • But overwhelming calm prevails, Harvey ramping up the intensity as the dynamics fall to almost nothing, the "deepening trance" of the closing stanza brought entirely alive in a simple but gorgeous series of closing chords • In the wake of such cool focus, Johannes Eccard's motet Übers Gebirg Maria geht seemed to have even more swagger than usual, the choir clearly enjoying themselves • The choice of Magnificat this year was from Stanford's B-flat Service; as one would expect, it's hardly an inventive setting, the music predictable & having more-or-less nothing to do with the text, but all the same it is one of Stanford's better settings, its shortcomings easily ignored due to the work's bullish temperament • The final carol, John Gardner's Tomorrow shall be my dancing day is another piece that one could stand not hearing again for no little time; a poor piece, it was this year given a ponderous performance due to sluggish playing from the organist •

The hymns comprised the usual suspects &, once again, were almost all blighted at the last by descants that systematically fail in their simple duty to crown their melodies & provide a rousing conclusion • Once again, David Hill's for O come, O come, Emmanuel was the worst—& wasn't helped this time by the trebles being inaudible at first & raucous at the end; the only success among the descants was Christopher Robinson's for Come, thou long-expected Jesus, which genuinely enhances its music •

Despite such qualitatively mixed fare, one can always depend on the Great Advent Antiphons, which last year were practically the highlight of the evening • They weren't quite that this time (they occasionally sounded rather generic; make your own mind up whether that's a pro or con), but the mens' delivery of this profound ancient music was suave & quite moving • Yet again, J. S. Bach's notoriously wet Wachet auf brought the service to a flaccid conclusion, but the real shame is that the broadcast didn't continue for longer, as it was being followed by Messiaen's Dieu parmi nous; alas, the BBC saw fit to end the transmission before it began •

A PDF of the complete order of service, with full texts & translations, can be downloaded with the recording below; here's a summary of the music:

• Plainsong: The Great Advent Antiphons
• Carols: Es ist ein Ros' entsprungen (arr. Nield), The Cherry Tree Carol (arr. Cleobury), A Tender Shoot (Goldschmidt), Out of your Sleep (Milner), The Truth from Above (arr. Vaughan Williams/ Robinson), The Annunciation (World Première) (Harvey), Tomorrow shall be my dancing day (Gardner)
• Hymns: O come, O come, Emmanuel (Veni Emmanuel) (descant: Hill), Come, thou long-expected Jesus (Cross of Jesus) (descant: Robinson), On Jordan's bank the Baptist's cry (Winchester New) (descant: Robinson), Lo! He comes with clouds descending (Helmsley) (descant: Robinson)
• Anthems: Adam lay ibounden (Swayne), How lovely are the messengers (Mendelssohn), Magnificat (Stanford in B flat)
• Motets: Rorate coeli (Guerrero), Übers Gebirg Maria geht (Eccard)
• Organ Voluntary: Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme BWV 645 (J. S. Bach)

[86:30]
FLAC part 1 | part 2 | part 3 [325Mb]
MP3 [v0 vbr | 138Mb]
PDF Order of Service

Reviews/recordings of previous years' Advent Carol Services can be found here: 2010 | 2009 | 2008