There are two CD's available of the music recorded at the Grosvenor Chapel:

'The Spirit of Christmas' – a CD by the Choir of the Grosvenor Chapel

'The Glory of Grosvenor' - The Organ of Grosvenor Chapel, played by Richard Hobson

The Spirit of Christmas' - a CD by the Choir of the Grosvenor Chapel

The Grosvenor Chapel is pleased to introduce its CD The Spirit of Christmas. Performed by the Choir of the Grosvenor Chapel under Director of Music Richard Hobson, The Spirit of Christmas is recorded in the unique acoustics of the Chapel, and features some of the best-loved music from the Chapel’s acclaimed Christmas concerts in a sequence following the Christmas story from Advent to Epiphany. There are well-known carols; music celebrating the Chapel itself (for example Maurice Greene’s anthem ‘Behold, I bring you glad tidings’, which is contemporary with the founding of the Chapel in 1731); and such sublime works as Herbert Howells’ ‘A spotless rose’ and Elizabeth Poston’s ‘Jesus Christ the apple tree’. The singing ranges from the unaccompanied voice beginning ‘Once in royal David’s city’, by way of delicate choral textures and polyphony, to great climaxes accompanied on the Chapel’s renowned organ, and a thrilling set of variations for the organ on the theme ‘In dulci jubilo’.
The Spirit of Christmas is on the Opera Omnia label.

This CD can be purchased from the Chapel Office at a price of £10.00 (plus £2 postage & packing). Please send you order together with a cheque for the correct amount made payable to ‘Grosvenor Chapel Foundation’ to:

CD Sales
Grosvenor Chapel
24 South Audley Street
London W1K 2PA

Proceeds from the sales of The Spirit of Christmas will support the restoration of the Chapel through the Grosvenor Chapel Foundation. We hope very much that you will help us in this work – and celebrate Christmas with us!

THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS

Notes by Richard Hobson

1. HYMN: O COME, O COME, EMMANUEL

This great Advent hymn, with its refrain Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel Shall come to thee, O Israel, is based on the series of antiphons sung in the days leading up to Christmas. A metrical version was in use in the 13th century, and the well-known English version was translated by J.M.Neale in 1851, and quickly became an indispensable part of the preparation for Christmas.

2. ANTHEM: THIS IS THE RECORD OF JOHN

Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625)
Helen Foster Brookes – alto
Gibbons was organist of the Chapel Royal. This setting of words from St John's Gospel is a verse anthem originally accompanied by viols. There are three sections for the soloist, each answered in turn by the choir. The music brilliantly matches the narrative of the words, and is associated with the Third Sunday in Advent when this text is read as the Gospel.

3. CAROL: RIU, RIU, CHIU

Mateo Flecha the elder ? (1481-1553)
Alistair Bam ford – baritone
Words and music are from the Villancicos de diversos autores published in Venice in 1556. The Spanish villancico and English carol had much in common, with verses and refrain and a dance-like melody. Riu, riu, chiu was a call of Spanish shepherds when guarding their flocks, and the melody exists in a number of versions both sacred and secular.

Refrain: Riu, riu chiu, the shepherd by the river: God protected our Ewe from the wolf.

1. The furious wolf tried to bite her, but almighty God protected her well: he made in such a way that she could know no sin, a virgin, unstained by Adam's fault.
2. This new-born child is a mighty monarch, the patriarchal Christ clothed in flesh; he redeemed us by making himself tiny: he who was infinite became finite.
3. Many prophecies foretold his coming, and now in our time we have seen them fulfilled. God became man, we see him on earth, and we see man in heaven because God loved him.
4. He comes to give life to the dead and to atone for man's fall: this very Babe is the Light of Day, the Lamb of whom St John spoke.
5. Now we have gained what we desired let us go together to present him with our gifts; let each resign his will to the God who was willing to come down to earth to become man's equal.

(Translated by the editors of the New Oxford Book of Carols, after Robert Pring-Mill)

4. HYMN: HARK! HOW ALL THE WELKIN RINGS

arr. Thomas Betts (mid 18th century)
The famous Easter hymn tune to the words 'Jesus Christ is risen today' is set here to the original text of Charles Wesley's hymn, now sung as 'Hark the herald angels sing' to a tune by Mendelssohn. Thomas Betts was a friend of the Wesleys. In town and city churches where organs were common in the 18th century (the Grosvenor Chapel had one from the time of its opening), it was customary for the organist to play preludes before, and interludes between, the verses of hymns. Some of these were published, and those played here are by Starling Goodwin, a London organist in the mid 18th century. The introduction is by Timothy Roberts.

5. CAROL: AN EARTHLY TREE

William Byrd (?1543-1623)
Lucy Paddam & Katy Cooper – sopranos
Like the Gibbons anthem, Byrd's Carowle for Christmas Day has a viol accompaniment in the original, and consists of three verses for two soloists, each followed by a four-part refrain: Cast off all doubtful care. Probably written for domestic use rather than in a service, it is an early example of a composed carol in English.

6. CHORALE FANTASIA: WIE SCHON LEUCHTET DER MORGENSTERN

Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707)
Richard Hobson – organ
Buxtehude's fantasia takes the melody of the German chorale How brightly shines the morning star (by Philipp Nicolai) and sets it complete in long notes against a variety of accompanimental figures in the first half of this piece. In the second section it is treated as a fugue with echos and sequences. The melody was not originally associated with Christmas (the star of the first line was not the star of Bethlehem, but is Christ the 'dayspring from on high'); however, by the 19th century it was certainly seen by Peter Cornelius as a Christmas melody as he used it in his song The Three Kings, sung later in this programme.

7. CAROL: JESUS CHRIST THE APPLE TREE

Elizabeth Poston (1905-1987)
This exquisite setting was published in the Cambridge Hymnal, which Elizabeth Poston edited, in 1967. The words are anonymous, but taken from a collection of Joshua Smith, published in New Hampshire in 1784. The classical simplicity of the melody (entirely in crotchets apart from one dotted rhythm in bar 2) and harmony are unforgettable.

8. ANTHEM: BEHOLD, I BRING YOU GLAD TIDINGS

Maurice Greene (1695-1755)
Lucy Paddam & Katy Cooper – sopranos
Greene was organist of St Paul's Cathedral and organist and composer of the Chapel Royal. A sometime friend of Handel, his Forty Select Anthems were published in 1743. Behold, I bring you glad tidings, an 'Anthem for Christmas Day' with words from St Luke's Gospel, was written in 1728, and is one of the few 'cathedral' pieces for Christmas from this period. It has been edited for this recording by Richard Hobson.

9. CAROL-ANTHEM: A SPOTLESS ROSE

Herbert Howells (1892-1983)
It could be said that Herbert Howells is the voice of cathedral music in the 20tn century, so prolific and individual has he been in his settings of canticles, masses and anthems. This setting of 14tn century words was written in 1919. The second verse is set twice: first for a baritone solo accompanied by the rest of the choir, and then more robustly for all voices. The final page is a classic of 20th century choral music: 'O Herbert, that cadence is a stroke of genius' wrote Howells' friend and contemporary (and Cambridge Professor of Music) Patrick Hadley, on a postcard at Advent 1955.

10. HYMN: WHILE SHEPHERDS WATCHED THEIR FLOCKS BY NIGHT

Thomas Clarke (1775-1859)
Thomas Clarke was a cordwainer by trade, but wrote an enormous number of tunes as the leading Dissenting .composer of the late Georgian period. Better known now as the tune for the Yorkshire words 'On Ilkla Moor baht 'at' it has been used for various hymn texts since its first publication in 1805. As in the hymn Hark! how all the welkin rings the melody is in the tenor part which is doubled at the octave above by the sopranos for some verses. This gives a five part texture which seems to be peculiar to English hymn singing at this time.

11. CAROL: THE THREE KINGS

Peter Cornelius (1824-1874)
Alistair Bam ford - baritone
The original version of this wonderful piece was published for voice and piano in 1871. Cornelius wrote both music and words, and used the chorale melody How brightly shines the morning star as the accompaniment at the suggestion of Franz Liszt. This well-known choral arrangement was made by Ivor Atkins, organist of Worcester Cathedral, and friend of Elgar.

12. CAROL: GOOD KING WENCESLAS

arr. Reginald Jacques
Jacques' arrangement of this popular carol was published in 1961 in the first volume of Carols for Choirs, which he edited with David Willcocks. The words are by I.M.Neale, and were written for this melody, taken from the Piae Cantiones of 1582. Wenceslas (the Good) reigned in Bohemia from 922 to 929.

13. CAROL: IN THE BLEAK MIDWINTER

Harold Darke (1888-1976)
Katy Cooper - soprano,
Matthew Woolhouse - tenor
Harold Darke was organist of the City church of St Michael's, Cornhill from 1916-1966. He wrote his setting of Christina Rosetti's poem in 1911, and it has become another indispensable part of Christmas.

14. VARIATIONS ON IN DULCI JUBILO

Bedard (b.1950)
Richard Hobson - organ
Denis Bedard was born in Quebec in 1950 and is organist of St-Coeur de Marie church in Quebec City. He performs extensively as an organist in North America and is a prolific composer. He describes his music as 'essentially tonal and melodic, characterized by a concern for formal clarity and immediate communication with as large a public as possible.'

15. CAROL: THERE IS NO ROSE OF SUCH VIRTUE

John Joubert (b. 1927)
Nowhere have composers been more active in writing Christmas music in the last 75 years than in Britain. The tradition of the Service of Nine Lessons and Carols instituted first at Truro Cathedral, and continued more famously at King's College, Cambridge from 1918 has had a huge influence. Most 20tn century British composers have, at some point in their careers, written either original carols, or made arrangements of familiar melodies. The repertoire is huge, but some pieces stand out as exceptional in quality, and they are not always by the best known composers. John Joubert was born in South Africa, and his setting of 15tn century words for unaccompanied voices is a little masterpiece of restrained, lyrical writing. It was published in 1954.

16. CAROL: A MAIDEN MOST GENTLE

French tune arr. Andrew Carter
Better known as the Lourdes hymn, Andrew Carter has set this melody to a paraphrase of words by the Venerable Bede. With its flowing organ counter-melody ('merrily Ruttering along' as one critic has described the style), varied use of voices in each verse and unison-with-des-cant final stanza, it became an instant classic of the genre on its publication in the 1970s.

17. HYMN: ONCE IN ROYAL DAVID'S CITY

Henry Gauntlett (1805-1876)
arr. David Willcocks
Katy Cooper - soprano (verse 1).
The words of this Hymn for Little Children are by a prolific Victorian hymn writer, Mrs C.F.Alexander, and were published in 1848 with a dedication to her godsons. Henry Gauntlett was a brilliant London organist, writer and expert on organ building. He wrote a number of hymn tunes of which this remains the best known. David Willcock's descant and harmonisation for the final verse was written for King's College, Cambridge during his time as organist there. Along with similar treatments of Hark the herald angels sing and O come, all ye faithful, it is perhaps the finest of such arrangements. Willcock's best descants are always true counter-melodies to the original, complementing the rise and fall of the line and leading to an ecstatic climax underscored with rich but appropriate harmony.

How this CD came to be recorded

In 1998, a member of the congregation at the Grosvenor Chapel who was also involved with the Home Farm Trust approached me about the idea of a joint carol concert. It sounded an inspired idea and in December that year 350 people attended the first Spirit of Christmas concert, attended by HRH Princess Margaret, the Patron of the Chapel’s Restoration Appeal. The choir and orchestra played the most riveting selection of Christmas music whilst an array of stars of stage and screen such as Grift Rhys Jones, Anne Robinson, Nigel Havers, Patrick Godfrey, Amanda Walker, Tim Pigott-Smith and Pamela Miles read from such diverse sources as Isaiah and Dylan Thomas. It was followed by a reception in Thomas Goode, the beautiful china shop next door to the Chapel, which was attended by the American Ambassador and his wife. We were delighted too to have gained the support of Citibank Private Bank, situated in Berkeley Square, which has been our principal supporter for the past five years. The Spirit of Christmas is a glittering occasion that now takes place annually and continues to be a great success.

Now that the Chapel's exterior has been restored we have set up the Grosvenor Chapel Foundation to raise funds for restoring and redecorating the interior as well as for the long term upkeep of the Chapel. We are delighted that the Patron of the Foundation is HRH Princess Michael of Kent, who first attended the concert in 2000.

This CD is a selection of some of the music and hymns that have been performed at these wonderful concerts. It gives a flavour of the magic of the occasion, sung by candlelight in this beautiful church. I hope the CD will not only give a flavour of what is now a firmly established event in Mayfair's calendar, but will also remind those who have attended of the beauties of the concert they have enjoyed - and allow many more to join us in celebrating The Spirit of Christmas.

The Glory of Grosvenor

A CD of 18th c. English organ music played by Richard Hobson on the instrument built in 1991 by William Drake. The organ, in a broadly 18th c. style, is housed in the Abraham Jordan organ case of 1732.

John Bennett Voluntary in F
Thomas Gladwin Sonata no.6 in E minor
William Walond Voluntary in D minor & major
Voluntary in D minor
Thomas Attwood Dirge for 9th January 1806
William Russell Voluntary in G minor set 1 no.10
Voluntary in C major set 1 no.1
John Keeble Voluntary in G major
Voluntary in F