Description
The Saint Thomas Choir of Men & Boys
John Scott, conductor
Frederick Teardo, organ
with Concert Royal
James Richman, artistic director
Running through this disc of some of Purcell’s best-known sacred music is a sense of majesty: the greatness of God as the ultimate reflection of the power and grandeur of monarchy, along with its reverse image: the unworthiness of the servant to his master. The latter them appears in many psalm texts, with perhaps no better example than Psalm 96, [1] O SING UNTO THE LORD, possibly composed in 1688.
With the King’s string band displayed prominently in an opening overture, the musical textures alternate continually from a full choral tutti to a quartet in the central section, surrounded by brief instrumental refrains and topped and tailed with Alleluias. They each depict the glory of God beside the insignificance of man-made gods.
[Read more by accessing the complete text of the CD booklet.]
