Chorister Reviews

January 2012

Choir triumphs in Bach Mass.  Read more...

June 2010

11-year-old Dean Close pupil crowned BBC Radio 2 Chorister of the Year.  Read more...

September 2009

Choristers sing for Olympic Wedding.  Read more...

Schola Cantorum's new CD 'Thomas Weelkes' has been named a Gramophone 'Recommended Recording' in the April 2009 issue of Gramophone.

The disc was recorded in Dean Close School Chapel in May 2008.   O vos omnes: in this instance, all you that customarily pass by without reading reviews of Tudor church music, thinking it (perhaps) skilful and lovely no doubt, but somewhat cool and impersonal. Weelkes is a composer to make you think again, and Tewkesbury Abbey currently has the choir to present him in strongest colours and with the most personal accent. Born around 1575, he was of the last generation of Elizabethans and wrote much of his church music in Jacobean times, so having a great musical inheritance to draw upon. And he did indeed pay what looks like conscious tribute in his music to such eminent predecessors as Byrd and Gibbons. There remains an intensity of passionate utterance in the most striking of his works, balanced by a sober moderation in much else. He himself, as we learn from contemporary accounts, was not characterised by either moderation or sobriety, at least in his latter years, coming to his choir "from the Taverne or Ale house" cursing and swearing "most dreadfully". You would never guess as much from the decorous verse anthems and evening canticles, but the intensity of the lament O Jonathan, which opens the present recital, might suggest a less bridled temperament, as might the concentrated fervour of Hosanna to the Son of David, which closes it.   Under Benjamin Nicholas, director of the Abbey's Schola Cantorum, the choir has developed a strong style, remarkable for its sense of personal (or corporate) commitment as for the sonority of its tone and the assurance of its delivery. The trebles splendidly vindicate the tradition that places them at the heart of the English cathedral music. the men's voices are also powerful and resonant and the total effect is rich and forthright. If anything, the "standard" level of volume is set too high - it is not until the sixth item, O how amiable are thy dwellings, that we find reassurance that the choir can sing quietly. Fine solo work and neat organ-playing are further assets, as is the introductory note by Dr Peter James. He points out, incidentally, that O vos omnes and the Third Service are reconstructed from surviving parts, newly edited and recorded here for the first time. John Steane 

BBC Music Magazine CD of the month

Honegger's Une Cantate de Noel  BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales, Dean Close School Chamber Choir and Tewkesbury Abbey Schola Cantorum of DCPS  

I was slightly worried by James Rutherford's vibrato, but his role is relatively minor and for me this was more than compensated for by the children's chorus with their spot-on tuning and authentically continental tang.....the tension is broken by bright children's voices singing Joie et paix sur toi, Israel' - a truly inspired moment.'  

Review of the Choristers' Christmas CD from Classic FM Magazine November 2008:

  Grading: **** Three world-premiere recordings, including Parry's 'When Christ was born of Mary free', add to the magnetic attraction of  'The Three Kings'. The disc admirably captures the cavernous acoustics of Tewkesbury and the almost cavalier dash of its Schola Cantorum. I love the boldness of the music-making here, the emotional commitment of all concerned and the fascinating repertoire mix, crowned by Gabriel Jackson's 'The Magi' and John Tavener's 'God is with us'.

International Record Review of the choir's latest CD,  December 2007

Delphian's contribution to our festivities comes in a single CD, 'The Three Kings', from Tewkesbury Abbey Schola Cantorum under Benjamin Nicholas, with organist Carleton Etherington. The music covers the twentieth century, about half of it being recent, with two really fine settings by Gabriel Jackson. There are also settings by Parry, Bax and Howells from the older generations, and in addition to Jackson's pieces there are gems by Jonathan Dove, Eric Whitacre and John Tavener, among others. The choral singing is superb, and the record ends with a Toccata-Prelude on Von Himmel Hoch by Garth Edmondson, very well played by Etherington, recorded in excellent sound.  

The Scotsman, 23 November 2007

Tewkesbury Abbey Schola Cantorum is to some extent the vestiges of Tewkesbury Abbey Choir School, which was disbanded a year ago and reconstituted within the Dean Close Preparatory School in Cheltenham. The original choir's director, Benjamin Nicholas went with them. As this imaginative carol miscellany shows, the partnership continues to produce performances of character and blend.

Thankfully, too, this Delphian disc, presents rather more than the staple diet of so many perennial carol releases. We hear some newer and fresher examples from the pens of Gabriel Jackson, American Eric Whiteacre and Swiss composer Carl Rütti, whose I wonder as I wander  packs swing and punch. Besides the more familiar carolling territory of Joubert, Parry and Tavener, abbey organist Carleton Etherington plays organ works by the blind French organist Jean Langlais (his lugubriously evocative La Nativité and Garth Edmondson's glittering toccata Vom Himmel Hoch).

Kenneth Walton

THE CHURCH TIMES REVIEW OF THE THREE KINGS

I DOUBT whether there are many more admirable choirs outside Westminster, Oxford, and Cambridge than the Tewkesbury Abbey Schola Cantorum. Only two years ago, these first-rate singing boys learned that their choir school was to be closed at a term's notice. Yet their future is now assured, thanks to the foresight of Dean Close School in Cheltenham, which fed and housed them, and their exceptional choirmaster, Benjamin Nicholas.

On Tewkesbury's new Christmas disc, "The Three Kings" (Delphian DCD 24047), Nicholas's choir give proof yet again of the qualities that place them firmly in the front rank: flair, acumen, versatility, and poise. Just a taste of Gabriel Jackson's "The Magi" or of Philip Wilby's lovely carol "The Word Made Flesh" will easily persuade you. The boys' voices enchant in Howells's Cradle Song ("O, my deir heart"). Their second Parry offering, "When Christ was born", like his Songs of Farewell and all five symphonies (thrillingly recorded by Matthias Bamert on Chandos 9120, a triple disc), gives a measure of why this most generous of men deserves to be ranked among Europe's true greats.

Tewkesbury's latest discs under Benjamin Nicholas have all been first-class: "Choral Evensong from Tewkesbury Abbey" (DCD 34713) included Jackson's Tewkesbury Service, written for the choir before news of the school's closure; and a complete disc of music by Sir John Stainer (Priory PRCD 833), some of it rarely heard, offers the perfect foil to Jeremy Dibble's authoritative new biography of Stainer. All three Tewkesbury discs have the supreme bonus of Carleton Etherington's organ playing. Langlais's La Nativité and a stupendous Toccata by Garth Edmundson (1900-71) are among the treats on the Christmas disc, while Etherington's versatility is perfectly displayed on his exciting Regent disc "Variation" (Regent REG CD 176), which includes Peeters, Karg-Elert, Reger, the Leipzig-trained Arno Landmann (1887-1966), and the equally adept Karl Höller (1907-97).

Rian Evans

Monday December 17, 2007
The Guardian

St David's Hall, Cardiff

Thierry Fischer is pursuing an admirable mission to introduce 20th-century French and Swiss music to the BBC National Orchestra of Wales audience, and Arthur Honegger's Cantate de Noël was his unusual choice of companion piece to Bach's Magnificat in D. Honegger would have been flattered by the pairing since his own preoccupation with counterpoint stemmed from a profound admiration of Bach.

The cantata mixes sacred texts with German and French Christmas carols. These traditional melodies have an essential simplicity, heightened here by the angelic purity of Tewkesbury Abbey's Schola Cantorum and the Dean Close School Chapel Choir contrasting with the richness of the BBC National Chorus of Wales. But it was the cumulative effect as Honegger wove the carols into a complex web of sound that emerged strikingly.

http://www.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk/

Handels Messiah, Tewkesbury Abbey.

This performance was a triumph for the Abbey's Schola Cantorum and augmented voices.With strong tenor line and counter-tenors replacing altos, it gave perfect balance to other vocal parts and interesting and pleasant composition.

Finely-tuned entries were unfaltering. Semiquaver passages throughout were clear and definitive. A cracking pace in For Unto Us swept joyously onwards.

Two trebles sweetly sang the triplet of recitatives before a jubilant Glory to God whilst a cohort of trebles beautifully sang in unison verse two of He Shall Feed.

Lift Up Your Heads contained precise dotted rhythms and excellent dynamics, The chorus was exultant.

Mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly, tenor Edward Lyon and Giles Underwood, bass, were particularly splendid. Expressive and communicative with a rich timbre to their voices, and comfortable in their range of notes, they barely looked at their score.

Conductor Benjamin Nicholas created a rapport with choir and orchestra with firm command and decisive beat whilst Bristol's Emerald Ensemble responded assertively

Choir and soloists breathed an expressive story into a work without characters or narrative, but with a message of good news and hope.

JILL BACON

Christmas with Schola Cantorum

The Schola Cantorum has enjoyed a busy and fulfilling Christmas. In addition to the Abbey's Advent Carol Service, which was sung jointly with the Abbey Choir, the Schola Cantorum sang at the service of 9 Lessons and Carols at Dean Close School, and at the choir's own Carol Service in Tewkesbury Abbey. A feature of these services and the Cotswold Life Christmas Concert was the inclusion on Bob Chilcott's carol The night he was born. This powerful work was commissioned by Dean Close for the school's choirs and later this year will be published by Oxford University Press so that many more choirs can enjoy it next Christmas.

The choristers and the Dean Close Chapel Choir sopranos travelled to Cardiff on two occasions in December to rehearse, record and perform Honegger's Cantata de Noel with the BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales under their conductor Thierry Fischer. This concert was well received, and the Guardian wrote of the angelic purity of the Tewkesbury Abbey Schola Cantorum and the Dean Close School Chapel Choir'. The concert will be broadcast on Radio 3 and the recording, made in the afternoon of the concert day, will appear on the Hyperion label.

The annual performance of Messiah in the Abbey featured a wonderful line-up of soloists: Susan Young, Sarah Connolly, Edward Lyon and Giles Underwood. The concert, which was described as a triumph' in the Gloucestershire Echo marked the beginnings of a partnership with the Emerald Ensemble.

Choir Schools Today 2008

The Three Kings - Music for Christmas from Tewkesbury Abbey

It is very hard not to use superlatives when speaking of Ben Nicholas and his choir at Tewkesbury Abbey, and once again I fail. This is yet another quite outstanding disc of the highest standard, and a triumph forl all those who placed faith in Benjamin Nicholas and Carleton Etherington, the Abbey Organist, following the closure of the Abbey School two years ago. Now given a new lease of life by Dean Close School and renamned the Schola Cantorum, this group of young singers are going from strength to strength. This is an ambitious programme of Epiphany music, with popular pieces such as Cornelius' The Three Kings, Tavener's A Christmas Proclamation and Joubert's There is no rose, set against less familiar works like Dove's The Three Kings, Eric Whitacre's Lux Aurumque and Chilcott's And every stone shall cry. There are no less that three world premiere recordings: Gabriel Jackson's The Magi and Thou whose birth, and the delightful When Christ was born of Mary free by Gloucestershire man Hubert Parry. This is however, a collection that will appeal to all listeners and very highly recommended.

Choristers release new CD The Choristers of Tewkesbury Abbey Schola Cantorum have released a new CD of music by Thomas Weelkes. The sixteen boy choristers from Dean Close Preparatory School recorded the disc last May, and today it released internationally by Delphian Records. Benjamin Nicholas, the Director of the Choir, said  "the choristers worked incredibly hard for three days to record this very demanding music. I believe that the results do the music justice". Recording is an important part of the choir's work and since moving to Dean Close Preparatory School the choir has released three CDs. In March and April the choir will tour in the USA giving concerts in New York, Washington and Philadelphia. 'Thomas Weelkes- Sacred Choral Music' is available from all good records shops and itunes from 12 January 2009.