DESCRIPTION:
Guildford Cathedral Choir, directed by Barry Rose:
Recording in Guildford Cathedral, December 1968:
(This EMI recording of Stainer's “Crucifixion” became the choir’s second gold disc. Remarkably, it is still on sale today, all these years later, albeit as a re-issue. The recording sessions themselves gave rise to a piece of Guildford legend, when the chorus “God so loved the world” was recorded in only ONE take, an altogether unprecented occurrence. The original sleeve notes read: “‘The Crucifixion' is described as a ‘Meditation on the Passion of the Holy Redeemer'; it sets to music a text taken from the New Testament by the Rev. J. Sparrow-Simpson. It followed the example of later classical Passions in including a number of reflective hymns in which the audience or congregation join; the best-known of these today is the final hymn ‘All for Jesus'. The music owes much to Bach and Handel, but the strong influence of Mendelssohn, whose music was immensely popular among Victorian audiences, is apparent. ‘The Crucifixion' is an example of the finest church music of the Victorian age; while it is not music of any great complexity, its tuneful simplicity expresses an unaffected religious devotion.”)