Recordings

The Feast of Saint Peter the Apostle at Westminster Abbey

Released August 2010 (Hyperion CDA67770)

A varied collection of music one might hear if visiting the Abbey on its patronal feast - that of St Peter the Apostle on 29th June.

Duruflé Tu es Petrus (Quatre motets sur des thèmes grégoriens)

Radcliffe Preces and Responses
Ley Psalm 138 ‘Confitebor tibi’
Stanford Te Deum and Jubilate in B flat
Byrd Mass for five voices
Palestrina Tu es Petrus a 6
Crotch Psalm 124 ‘Nisi quia Dominus’
Stanford Evening Service in B flat
Walton The Twelve
J S Bach Sinfonia from Wir danken dir, Gott, wir danken dir BWV29 (transcribed by Marcel Dupré)

James O’Donnell conductor
The Choir of Westminster Abbey

This programme of music for the Feast of St Peter broadly follows the structure of the three major choral services of the Anglican tradition, all of which can in turn be traced back to the worship familiar in the pre-Reformation period when the Abbey was a Benedictine monastery: Matins (or Morning Prayer); Eucharist (Mass); and Evensong (Evening Prayer). The two principal musical elements are William Byrd’s Mass for five voices, and, linking the morning and evening Offices, four movements from Charles Villiers Stanford’s Service in B flat. Also featured is Walton’s choral masterpiece The Twelve.

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Reviews

"James O'Donnell, his Westminster musicians and the Hyperion team have produced another jewel of a disc."
- Gramophone

"This is cathedral choral singing at its finest and most inspiring."
- The Daily Telegraph

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