The Shining Road

The Shining Road CD cover

In celebration of twenty-five years under its Musical Director John Aplin, Keswick Hall Choir, in 2006, released a CD, The Shining Road. Over these years, the choir has attracted the most accomplished and experienced amateur choral singers in Norfolk and established a fine reputation for its performances of challenging repertoire spanning five centuries. The performance of more unusual repertoire, both renaissance and contemporary, much of it a cappella, forms an important part of the choir’s programming. It is that repertoire which is now represented here on this CD, juxtaposing contrasting styles and bold dynamics, and for some works the choir is joined by Norwich Cathedral organist David Dunnett.

Works on this CD include:

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The Shining Road was recorded in Norwich Cathedral during February 2006 by Gary Cole of Regent Records, a company recognised for its outstanding choral and organ recordings. The cover photograph was taken near Wymondham in South Norfolk on the first night of recording.

Review of The Shining Road

This programme is particularly enterprising with no easy or predictable options. Lotti’s 10-voice Crucifixus is a compelling, though not completely dissimilar, alternative to his better known 8-voice setting, performed here with a beguiling organ continuo part; Caldara’s setting of the same text is discernibly from the same stable and very moving; Gesualdo’s O vos omnes is typically chromatic and idiosyncratic. All the 17th and 18th-century music is sung with assurance and style, but the choir is bigger than my ideal for this music, the numbers sometimes robbing the lines of the absolute clarity that a smaller group can achieve.

However, in the later repertoire this recording offers something really special. Tavener’s Mother and Child is wonderfully performed and thrilling when the organ and gong enter. Nystedt’s two works are a revelation and Pärt's Magnificat is a good example of this composer’s style. It is good to have another fine recording of Joubert in his 80th birthday year and the singing of Howells' Take him, earth is moving and intense. This is a recording which made me want to go out and buy lots of sets of scores for my own choir. I greatly enjoyed listening to well-directed and musical performances of such interesting repertoire.

— David Saint, Organists’ Review, August 2007