Some generous birthday presents have helped me to buy the Priory Records complete Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis series in 21 CDs (Disclaimer: I have no financial or other interest in Priory Records). I’ve been listening to all the discs to check that there are no problems with any of them.
I won’t attempt to review the entire set here but I’ll nominate some of my favourites: Chichester (for the Holst Nunc and Smart in G), Truro (because I’ve sung almost all the settings on this disc), Keble College (the only mixed-voice recording – I identify with the choral sound but am not so keen on their organ) and New College (an ambitious programme including the Finzi and Swayne Magnificats and the Byrd ‘Great’ service). Anyone looking at this last should note that my copy at least has both Mag and Nunc from the Great Service, on a single track. My special award for best liner notes goes to Paul Trepte’s on the Ely disc.
I expect to use these recordings to prepare for performances of some of these settings. To help me locate them, I’ve created an index to the set, ordered by composer. I can supply this in Word or Excel form for anyone who’s interested.
I’ll return to this set in another posting, and consider the choice of canticles (including identifying the well-known setting which they’ve unaccountably not recorded!).
[I’ve now found a review of the series here]
Excellent, that was really well explained and helpful