The Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge, Alexander Semple (vln), George Herbert (org) / Andrew Nethsingha (dir)

SIGNUM SIGCD777 [1.09.32]

★★★★★

Andrew Nethsingha’s final album from his time at St John’s College, Cambridge, including recordings by both the 2021-22 and 2022-23 year groups, is a summation of his distinguished tenure and of this wonderful series presenting settings of Evening Canticles – in this case entirely from the 20th and 21st centuries. Women composers are represented for the first time: the anthology opens with Anna Semple’s haunting stand-alone Magnificat, featuring a violin obligato played by the composer’s brother; the King’s College Service by Joanna Forbes L’Estrange has refreshing hints of her association with The Swingles, and Judith Weir’s characteristically spare and original St John’s Service, written for the college’s 500th anniversary, is followed by a lively setting by Jonathan Dove, also commissioned for the college. After a Collegium Regale by Adrian Cruft, a lesser-known setting by Howells and his Te Deum, the familiarity of Stanford in G comes as a surprise, followed by Murrill in E, but the stand-out for me is the concluding Worcester Service by Piers Connor Kennedy, with its echoes of plainchant. As organist George Herbert writes in his excellent booklet notes, it ‘inspires a real feeling of worship and understatement’, demonstrating that ‘the feeling of daily liturgy and sacred spaces is under [Kennedy’s] skin’. The effects of the Covid-19 hiatus can occasionally be heard in the tracks recorded by the 2021/22 choir, but they are back in fine fettle by the later sessions.

This article originally appeared in the Autumn 2024 issue of Choir & Organ. Never miss an issue – subscribe today