Choir of Leeds Minster, St. Peters Singers of Leeds, Shaun Turnbull, Alexander Woodrow - William Lloyd Webber: The Saviour (2025) [Hi-Res]

Tracklist

01. Sing, O heavens
02. O for a closer walk with God
03. Oh, Lord spread Thy wings o'er me
04. There is a green hill far away - Horsley
05. When I survey the wondrous cross - Rockingham
06. Ride on, ride on in Majesty - Winchester New
07. O come and mourn with me awhile - St. Cross
08. O sacred head, sore wounded - Passion Chorale
09. Praise to the holiest in the height - Gerontius
10. The Saviour: God commandeth His love towards us
11. The Saviour: Ye are not your own
12. The Saviour: Hymn: My God I love Thee
13. The Saviour: The Last Supper
14. The Saviour: The Garden of Gesthemane
15. The Saviour: The Crucifixion
16. The Saviour: Hymn: When I survey the wondrous cross
17. The Saviour: God freely doth forgive
18. The Saviour: If God be for us, who can be against us?
19. The Saviour: Hymn: Just as I am, without one plea

William Lloyd Webber (1914-1922) displayed rermarkable musicianship from an early age, giving organ recitals, holding church appointments and accompanying silent films while in his early teens, prior to studying with Ralph Vaughan Williams at the Royal College of Music . Gaining his Fellowship of the Royal College of Organists at the age of 19, he embarked upon a career that blended teaching positions- at the Royal College of Music and as Director of the London College of Music. Further appointents were at All Saints, Margaret Street, London and of the Methodist Church of Westminster Central Hall.

His music, always elegant and assured, is in a late Romantic idiom that is quite different from the much more progressive directions many composers were exploring in the mid 20th century.

The works gathered on this recording are centred around his cantata for Passiontide, The Saviour, receiving here its first performance. It was written in 1961 for the Choir of Westminster Central Hall. It is written in the style of Stainer's Crucifixion but of a different order of craftmanship and invention. Written for choir and solists. The writing for choir and organ is imaginative and often where the text demands it, exciting.

The short anthems which start the disc are from the 1950s and the short organ pieces are in the choral prelude tradition.

We believe this programme is all previously unrecorded.

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