Recordings

Belshazzar’s Feast

Walton

André Previn
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Walton's dramatic Old Testament tale tells of the fabulously wealthy and decadent city of Babylon, and the dramatic downfall of its godless ruler, with a huge orchestra, eight-part choir, organ and two brass bands. Invoking memories of the first ever performance given by BFC with Walton conducting his dazzling cantata, this remains one of the most memorable of the Chorus’ recordings.

Carmina Burana

Carl Orff

Antal Dorati
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
An historic recording famous for use in the 1976 Old Spice advertisement with over 8m plays worldwide.

Choral Works

Kodály

Istvan Kertesz / Laszlo Heltay
London Symphony Orchestra
(Psalmus Hungaricus; Hymn of Zrini)
Like so much of Kodaly’s work for choirs both these pieces are an intense cry from the heart, a work which ranks among the best of 20 Century choral writing.

Choral Works

Arnold Bax

Vernon Handley
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
(Enchanted Summer; Fatherland; Walsinghame)
The series of tone-poems that made Bax's reputation. With excellent solo and choral contributions, Handley is in his element and the orchestra and chorus enjoy to the full the score's rich colour and many graceful solo passages.

Ecce Sacerdos Magnus

Elgar

Barry Wordsworth
BBC Concert Orchestra
Compelling but little-known music of Elgar showing the composer at his best, with superb and committed choral singing from the Brighton Festival Chorus. A CD which ought to be on every Elgar lovers’ shelves.

Glagolitic Mass

Janacek

Rudolf Kempe
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
‘Always the scent of the moist forest – that was the incense’, declared Janácek, describing his majestic Mass. ‘I felt a cathedral grow before me in the vast expanse of the hills and the vault of the sky’. For him, the whole of creation was a cause for celebration, and with its jubilant trumpets, thundering organ and raw, unbuttoned lust for life, there is something elemental about his Glagolitic Mass – a choral work like no other.

Hymn on the Morning of Christ’s Nativity

McEwen

Alasdair Mitchell
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Fifty years after his death, a major work is edited, performed, and recorded, and the name of John Blackwood McEwen is brought back to life. Presented with conviction and a freshness and clarity in this excellent performance, Alasdair Mitchell did his fellow countryman good service.

In Terra Pax

Martin

Matthias Bamert
London Philharmonic Orchestra
An ambitious choral work commissioned by Swiss Radio in 1944 to commorate the hoped for peace after the end of World War II. Rarely performed, Gramophone welcomed the recording a distinguished addition to Martin’s output.

Le Martyre de Saint Sébastien

Debussy

Jacques Mercier
Orchestre national d'Île-de-France
Award winning recording based on a five-act musical mystery play on the subject of Saint Sebastian, early Christian saint and martyr, this recording was awarded "Le Choc" by the French magazine Le Monde de la musique.

Mass of the Sea Op47

Patterson

Geoffrey Simon
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Written for the Gloucester Three Choirs Festival in 1983, Patterson’s Mass is warmly and immediately communicative, making an imaginative and welcome addition to the choral repertoire, fully exploring the composer’s love of the sea.

Missa Brevis

Kodály

László Heltay
Christopher Bowers-Broadbent (organ)
A recording with a special resonance for the Chorus having been rehearsed and conducted by the BFC Music Director who had been a pupil of Kodaly when a music student in Budapest.

Requiem

Verdi

Owain Arwel Hughes
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Verdi's Requiem is one of the most famous and enthralling settings of the Requiem Mass, often labelled an opera in all but name. This recording was made in St Paul’s Cathedral – a fitting setting for such a monumental work.

Symphonic Mass

Lloyd

George Lloyd
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
A remarkable work which fits perfectly into the great British choral-orchestral tradition of the 20th century, yet it was written as recently as the early 1990s.

Symphony No. 1 ‘Gothic’

Havergal Brian

Martyn Brabbins
BBC Concert Orchestra and BBC National Orchestra of Wales
The massive and rarely heard Symphony No 1 was recorded from the Proms in 2011. Performed by seven choirs and two orchestras, the BBC Concert Orchestra and BBC National Orchestra of Wales it was a tour de force for performers and audience alike.

Symphony No. 2 ‘To October’

Shostakovich

Vladimir Ashkenazy
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
The Song of the Forests
(part of 12 CD set 'Shostakovich - The Symphonies')
The one movement 2nd Symphony orchestra and chorus was presented to the public in 1927 and was intended as a musical celebration to mark the tenth anniversary of the October Revolution. The second piece was written to celebrate the forestation of the Russian Steppes following the end of of World War II.

Symphony No. 2 in C minor (Resurrection)

Mahler

Harold Farberman
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Described as a heart shattering work of genius Mahler’s 2nd symphony is the embodiment of its title – Resurrection as it describes our own mortality and the approach to our own dying as well as the fervent individual hope that a life lived has not been in vain.

Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, Op 125

Beethoven

Yehudi Menuhin
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Beethoven’s magnum opus with Menuhin skilfully drawing the complex web of emotions together building to an ecstatic rendition of the ‘Ode to Joy’ .

Symphony of Psalms

Stravinsky

Leonard Bernstein
London Symphony Orchestra
Brighton Festival Chorus singing as English Bach Festival Chorus. New sounds, forms and shapes define the Symphony of Psalms, a profoundly unironic expression of Stravinsky's unique approach to the psalms, one of the most deeply moving and genuinely spiritual pieces Stravinsky ever wrote.

The Creation

Haydn

Antal Dorati
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
The Creation was inspired by Handel‘s Messiah and Israel in Egypt which Haydn had heard while visiting England. The oratorio describes the creation of the world from a formless void to an enchanted garden, with vivid depictions of sea, sun, birds and flowers, and is one of Haydn’s best works.

The Planets

Holst

André Previn
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Holst’s starting point for the music was the astrological character of each of seven planets. Neptune, the mystic, is the last movement where a double chorus of women’s voices provide an ethereal quality to the diaphanous veil of orchestral sound.

The Seasons

Joseph Haydn

Antal Dorati
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
The Seasons, a secular oratorio, is a rustic celebration of the four seasons of the year with peasant dances and animated musical portraits of the changing weather. With its winter storms and whistling ploughmen, hymns of praise and booze-fuelled revels, this sequel to The Creation was inspired by Haydn’s time in London and written specially to appeal to British audiences.

Under the WildWood Tree

Verdi Requiem

Verdi