Tomkins: Anthems & Canticles Magdalen College Choir

• 1Fantasia a 6 No. 1802:33
• 2Sing unto God06:04
• 3A Fantasy03:01
• 4Thou art my king04:35
• 5Fantasia a 3 No. 1403:13
• 6Above the stars my Saviour dwells03:35
• 7A Substantial Verse04:23
• 8Pavan a 5 No. 603:50
• 9Magnificat and Nunc dimittis: Magnificat05:09
• 10Pavan a 5 No. 702:44
• 11Magnificat and Nunc dimittis: Nunc dimittis02:41
• 12Alman a 401:20
• 13O Lord, let me know mine end05:57
• 14Voluntary for Mr. Archdeacon Thornburgh02:14
• 15Fantasia a 6 No. 1703:05
• 16Pavan and galliard a 6 No. 1804:30
• 17Rejoice, Rejoice, Sing and Rejoice06:18
• Total Runtime01:05:12

Info for Tomkins: Anthems & Canticles

The renowned Choir of Magdalen College, Oxford, joined here by former Magdalen College viol consort-in-residence Phantasm, showcase the amazing breadth and diversity of this masterly voice in English composition. Five verse anthems, jewels in Tomkins’s choral output, have come down to us with ensemble accompaniment, allowing choir and consort to combine forces as it’s likely they once did in the Elizabethan Chapel Royal. Phantasm also perform some of Tomkins’s most striking works for three to six viols, revealing the composer’s very personal approach to the consort style.

„Thomas Tomkins was one of the great tragic figures of English music. A magnificently prolific composer, his misfortune was to see every pillar of his life - musical, personal, religious, political and financial - demolished during the Civil War and its aftermath.

We think we have lived through a turbulent summer, it's a picnic compared with what Tomkins endured between 1642 and 1646, when Worcester under siege the cathedral where he worked desecrated, and his newly installed organ smashed up. No wonder one of his last masterpieces was the poignantly named Sad Pavan for these Distracted Times.

That's not included on this fine new disc from the Choir of Magdalen College Oxford, directed by Daniel Hyde, and Laurence Dreyfus's Viol consort Phantasm - but the selection does comprise several glorious anthems and viol fantasias and the superb Magnificat and Nunc Dmittis from Tomkins's Fifth Service.

And surprisingly, the overall mood is far from doleful. The interpretations are forthright and plangent, the sound soloists spirited, and the blend between choir and viols is excellent. Far from being broken by misfortune, Tomkins emerges as a proto-Beethoven figure, his sonorous or sinuous polyphony proclaiming the indestructibility of the human spirit, even when battered by ill-fate.

Incidentally, the disc is also Hyde's Oxford swansong. Next month he starts as director of music at St Thomas Church, Fifth Avenue, New York, succeeding the late John Scott.“ (Richard Morrison, The Times)

Choir of Magdalen College, Oxford
Daniel Hyde, conductor
Phantasm
Laurence Dreyfus, conductor

No biography found.

Booklet for Tomkins: Anthems & Canticles