Truro Cathedral Choir & James Anderson-Besant - HOPE SOARS ABOVE (2025) [Hi-Res]

Building on Regent’s long-standing and fruitful association with Truro Cathedral Choir we are delighted to release the first recording of the choir under its recently-appointed Director of Music, James Anderson-Besant. Released for the 400th anniversary of the death of Orlando Gibbons (1583–1625) this year, the recording juxtaposes sacred choral and solo organ works by Gibbons himself with those by his contemporaries William Byrd, John Bull, and Thomas Tomkins. Included are two of Gibbons’s most popular Evening Services, together with both popular and rarely-recorded anthems by three of the most famous English composers of the first quarter of the 17th century.

The recording also features three solo organ works, two of which are played on the historic John Byfield organ in St Mary’s Aisle of the Cathedral, which contains pipework dating from 1750. The recording derives its inspiring title ‘Hope soars above’ from a line in the opening anthem ‘O thou the central orb’ – words written by Henry Ramsden Bramley in 1873 to replace the original text of Gibbons’s 1619 anthem ‘O all true faithful hearts’ – which had a very restricted use in giving thanks for the recovery of King James VI. Bramley's radiant text opened up the appeal and wider usage of this otherwise forgotten fine anthem.

Over the last thirty years Truro Cathedral Choir has established through its broadcasts and recordings an international reputation as one of the UK’s finest cathedral choirs. Their Director of Music, James Anderson-Besant, was Organ Scholar and then Assistant Organist at St John’s College, Cambridge. This was followed by a period as Assistant Director of Music at Exeter Cathedral, before being appointed to Truro in 2023, the youngest cathedral director of music in the country.