Healey Willan Masses and Motets
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: (James) Healey Willan, Anonymous
Label: Virgin Classics
Magazine Review Date: 2/1997
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 75
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: 545109-2
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| Missae breves, Movement: No. 4, Corde natus ex parentis, B219 |
(James) Healey Willan, Composer
(James) Healey Willan, Composer Robert Hunter Bell, Conductor St Mary Magdalene Church Choir, Toronto |
| Missae breves, Movement: No. 11, Sancti Johannis Baptistae, B226 |
(James) Healey Willan, Composer
(James) Healey Willan, Composer Robert Hunter Bell, Conductor St Mary Magdalene Church Choir, Toronto |
| (6) Motets, Movement: No. 1, Hail, gladdening light |
(James) Healey Willan, Composer
(James) Healey Willan, Composer Robert Hunter Bell, Conductor St Mary Magdalene Church Choir, Toronto |
| (6) Motets, Movement: No. 3, Very bread, Good Shepherd, tend us |
(James) Healey Willan, Composer
(James) Healey Willan, Composer Robert Hunter Bell, Conductor St Mary Magdalene Church Choir, Toronto |
| (11) Liturgical Motets, Movement: No. 1, Preserve us, O Lord |
(James) Healey Willan, Composer
(James) Healey Willan, Composer Robert Hunter Bell, Conductor St Mary Magdalene Church Choir, Toronto |
| (11) Liturgical Motets, Movement: No. 2, O King all glorious |
(James) Healey Willan, Composer
(James) Healey Willan, Composer Robert Hunter Bell, Conductor St Mary Magdalene Church Choir, Toronto |
| (11) Liturgical Motets, Movement: No. 3, I beheld her beautiful as a dove |
(James) Healey Willan, Composer
(James) Healey Willan, Composer Robert Hunter Bell, Conductor St Mary Magdalene Church Choir, Toronto |
| (11) Liturgical Motets, Movement: No. 4, Fair in face |
(James) Healey Willan, Composer
(James) Healey Willan, Composer Robert Hunter Bell, Conductor St Mary Magdalene Church Choir, Toronto |
| (11) Liturgical Motets, Movement: No. 5, Rise up, my love, my fair one |
(James) Healey Willan, Composer
(James) Healey Willan, Composer Robert Hunter Bell, Conductor St Mary Magdalene Church Choir, Toronto |
| (11) Liturgical Motets, Movement: No. 8, O King, to whom all things do live |
(James) Healey Willan, Composer
(James) Healey Willan, Composer Robert Hunter Bell, Conductor St Mary Magdalene Church Choir, Toronto |
| (11) Liturgical Motets, Movement: No. 9, Behold, the Tabernacle of God |
(James) Healey Willan, Composer
(James) Healey Willan, Composer Robert Hunter Bell, Conductor St Mary Magdalene Church Choir, Toronto |
| (11) Liturgical Motets, Movement: No. 10, Hodie, Christus natus est |
(James) Healey Willan, Composer
(James) Healey Willan, Composer Robert Hunter Bell, Conductor St Mary Magdalene Church Choir, Toronto |
| (11) Liturgical Motets, Movement: 'No. 11, Who is she that ascendeth'? |
(James) Healey Willan, Composer
(James) Healey Willan, Composer Robert Hunter Bell, Conductor St Mary Magdalene Church Choir, Toronto |
| (2) Motets |
(James) Healey Willan, Composer
(James) Healey Willan, Composer Robert Hunter Bell, Conductor St Mary Magdalene Church Choir, Toronto |
| O Trinity, most Blessed Light |
(James) Healey Willan, Composer
(James) Healey Willan, Composer Robert Hunter Bell, Conductor St Mary Magdalene Church Choir, Toronto |
| Here are we in Bethlehem |
(James) Healey Willan, Composer
(James) Healey Willan, Composer Robert Hunter Bell, Conductor St Mary Magdalene Church Choir, Toronto |
| Hymn Tunes, Movement: No. 1, St Basil, 'Immortal, invisible, God only wi |
(James) Healey Willan, Composer
(James) Healey Willan, Composer Robert Hunter Bell, Conductor St Mary Magdalene Church Choir, Toronto |
| Hymn Tunes, Movement: No. 2, Stella orientis, 'Brightest and best of thehe morning' |
(James) Healey Willan, Composer
(James) Healey Willan, Composer Robert Hunter Bell, Conductor St Mary Magdalene Church Choir, Toronto |
| Hymn Tunes, Movement: No. 3, St Osmund, 'Lord, enthroned in heavenly spl |
(James) Healey Willan, Composer
(James) Healey Willan, Composer Robert Hunter Bell, Conductor St Mary Magdalene Church Choir, Toronto |
| How they so softly rest |
(James) Healey Willan, Composer
(James) Healey Willan, Composer Robert Hunter Bell, Conductor St Mary Magdalene Church Choir, Toronto |
| Gloria Deo per immensa saecula |
(James) Healey Willan, Composer
(James) Healey Willan, Composer Robert Hunter Bell, Conductor St Mary Magdalene Church Choir, Toronto |
| Gregorian Chant for Christmas |
Anonymous, Composer
Anonymous, Composer |
Author:
A gentle beauty holds sway throughout this recital, and though that may not sound like a reproach it does constitute a limitation. Dr Healey Willan, English by birth, spent most of his life in Canada, where he was among the most respected of musicians and the most prolific of composers. From 1921 till his death in 1968 he served as organist and choirmaster at the Anglo-Catholic church of St Mary Magdalene in Toronto. His compositions include symphonies, an opera and a concerto, and number (we are told) some 700 works. He is nevertheless remembered principally as a writer of church music, and over here most especially for a faux-bourdon setting of the evening canticles. The pieces heard on this record were written for his choir or in response to some commission; they are for voices a cappella and unfailingly show consideration for the singers and care for the texture of choral sound. What, on present evidence, they lack is the power to excite or disturb, to run or to jump, to exult or to weep: the gentle beauty is all.
Perhaps this impression might have been modified had not the choir itself conformed to the same view of things. Their tone is firm and even but soft-grained. From time to time these compositions do quicken the pace or intensify the utterance: the anthems,O Trinity, most Blessed Light and Who is she that ascendeth? are examples. The choir know how to make a crescendo but not how to brighten the tone or seize upon what is dramatic or potentially urgent in words or music. Yet, in general, they are sensitive to verbal inflexions as to the gentle flow of the quite beautiful phrases written for their predecessors. A lovely piece of work is the richly scored How they so softly rest, influenced by Russian church music and sending the basses down to low C, and this is finely sung. The present choirmaster, Dr Bell, also contributes notes for the insert-booklet, which has a good selection of photographs and is handily set out.'
Perhaps this impression might have been modified had not the choir itself conformed to the same view of things. Their tone is firm and even but soft-grained. From time to time these compositions do quicken the pace or intensify the utterance: the anthems,
Healey Willan Masses and Motets
Discover the world's largest classical music catalogue with Presto Music.
Gramophone Digital Club
- Digital Edition
- Digital Archive
- Reviews Database
- Full website access
From £8.75 / month
Subscribe
Gramophone Full Club
- Print Edition
- Digital Edition
- Digital Archive
- Reviews Database
- Full website access
From £11.00 / month
Subscribe
If you are a library, university or other organisation that would be interested in an institutional subscription to Gramophone please click here for further information.