Hyperion

Christmas Vespers at Westminster Cathedral

Christmas Vespers at Westminster Cathedral

Westminster Cathedral Choir, Matthew Martin (organ), Martin Baker (conductor)

CDA67522

This disc presents an adorned version of the Office of Vespers as it might be heard on the eve of Christmas in Westminster Cathedral, a building steeped in art, music and spirituality.

The chant on this disc is the golden thread which runs throughout the entire liturgy giving the Office a natural rhythm and inevitability as well as clarity of text and beautiful language; it is complemented here by motets and canticles by Thomas Tallis, Tomás Luis de Victoria and Heinrich Schütz, while Jean Langlais’s massive Fête for organ concludes the service.

The only cathedral choir in the world to sing Mass and Vespers liturgically every day, The Choir of Westminster Cathedral is perfectly placed to offer to the armchair listener this CD encapsulation of their very lifeblood, recorded here in the opulent acoustic of their own cathedral.

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