As I’m on the verge of recording a CD, it’s time to look back at other recordings I’ve made. The new recording with Bristol Choral Society will be the sixth professional one I’ve made. The others (mostly recorded when I was a student at Cambridge) are:
- SS Wesley and the Choral Service A cassette made with the choir of Christ’s College (with whom I sang at the time). It included the first recording of the Communion Service in E, the rest of the Service in E and a couple of anthems including Ascribe Unto the Lord, in which I took the 1st treble part in the long verse section.
- The Chapel Choir of Corpus Christi College Cambridge We might have got a more attention-grabbing title by quoting from one of the texts we sang: White as an orchid she rode quite naked, for example. This was made in the same week as the first, with very small forces. It was recommended by Choir and Organ although I don’t know how you would have got a copy if you weren’t in or passing Corpus. Piles of LPs (our recording was made as this format was dying out) sat in the porters’ lodge for some years, but when I recently asked Corpus archives didn’t have their own copy, so I sent them one transferred to CD.
- A recording based around 6 motets by Professor Edward Dent, with the choir of St Catharine’s College. This had the most professional production standards of any recording I’ve made until now, but was never released: the Director of Music was seriously ill and the organ scholar who conducted never edited the results. The recording company (I forget which it was) didn’t seem to mind. I felt sorry for the regular singers who’d been performing these rather strange and difficult pieces all through the previous year only for the results not to be used. More information on what was on this disc and the Corpus one can be found in an earlier article I wrote.
- a recording of Messiah taken from a live performance given by Manchester Cathedral Cantata Choir and on sale the following day locally. This was an attempt (I believe successful) at breaking the record for the quickest release of a CD after it was recorded.
- Here is the Little Door, a CD of Christmas music, distributed locally, by the Chantry Singers of Bath.