Jerusalem: British Choral Classics - David Hill, Choir of Winchester Cathedral, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra

Recorded in the splendidly-lush acoustic of Winchester Cathedral, this popular Decca/Argo release is now restored to circulation at super-budget price with such popular favourites as Parry’s ‘I was glad’ and Elgar’s orchestration of ‘Jerusalem’. But there are also many other pieces for choir and orchestra here to be discovered.

Finally Jerusalem itself comes as the culminating tableau, with the solidity of massed unison voices and the flaming chariots and swirling arrows of desire set ablaze in the orchestral score which Elgar wrote for it four years after Parry’s death. […] This is a sumptuous programme, and David Hill’s by no means meagre forces present it with a fine sense of style and occasion, vividly recorded too. There is not only the splendour of sheer amplitude but also a spring in the rhythm (as in Stanford’s Magnificat) and beauty of tone in the quieter passages such as the hymn from Parry’s Judith’ Gramophone

HUBERT PARRY
I was glad
Long since in Egypt’s plenteous land
Blest pair of Sirens

EDWARD BAIRSTOW
Blessed City, heavenly Salem

EDWARD ELGAR
Great is the Lord, Op. 67
O hearken Thou
Give unto the Lord, Op. 74

CHARLES VILLIERS STANFORD
Te Deum laudamus in B flat major
Magnificat in B flat major, Op. 10
Nunc dimittis in B flat major, Op. 10

PATRICK HADLEY
My beloved spake

HUBERT PARRY
Jerusalem (orch. Elgar)

Choir of Winchester Cathedral
Waynflete Singers
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
David Hill