<p>Peter Dickinson and author Thomas Blackburn share equal billing on the CD booklet of their musical drama about Judas Iscariot and for good reason, as one third of its running time is of declaimed text, making it something of a hybrid, a stage drama interspersed with choral tableaux. <i>The Judas Tree</i> was first performed in the UK in 1965, thereafter at the Washington National Cathedral in March 1967, when this recording was made. Although a number of instrumental pieces were omitted from the performance, it must be particularly gratifying to have a souvenir in resonable mono sound of that auspicious occasion that took place in the sixth largest cathedral in the world. </p>

<p>Blackburn’s libretto centres on the redemptive power of Christianity to forgive Judas Iscariot for his betrayal of Christ. In the unfolding drama Judas is addressed by a sanctimonious Pilate, a Dominican monk and a Nazi commandant. Finally Judas himself speaks. Their words are clear but their delivery today sounds stilted and ponderous. The singers are well deserving of praise, the apostles in particular, and the chorus enliven the drama with their spirited singing, despite the restrictive recording. The well-rehearsed (uncredited) orchestra makes its presence felt at key dramatic moments. The choral writing is light on its feet, anticipating the syncopations in Bernstein’s <i>Chichester Psalms</i>, with trumpet fanfares and march rhythms keeping the drama on its toes. Dickinson’s music is on more traditional ground, with its references to the Passion hymn <i>O sacred head</i> heard in the scene where Pilate pleads for Judas to be pardoned, and the hymn tune <i>Nicaea</i> (‘Holy, holy, holy’) at Simon Peter’s interrogation. <i>The Judas Tree</i> maybe a period piece but it is a fascinating one, a slice of 1960s memorabilia from that extraordinary cultural decade.