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Track(s) taken from CDA68140

The castle by the sea

First line:
Hast thou seen that lordly castle?
composer
Sir John Stainer (1840-1901)
circa 1865; SSATB SSATB
author of text
Johann Ludwig Uhland (1787-1862)
Das Schloss am Meere
translator of text
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)

Royal Holloway Choir, Rupert Gough (conductor)
Studio Master FLAC & ALAC downloads available
CD-Quality:
Studio Master:
CD-Quality:
Studio Master:
Recording details: April 2015
All Hallows, Gospel Oak, London, United Kingdom
Produced by Adrian Peacock
Engineered by David Hinitt
Release date: June 2016
Total duration: 6 minutes 48 seconds

Cover artwork: Alleluia (1896). Thomas Cooper Gotch (1854-1931)
 

Reviews

‘Impeccably judged interpretations, executed with equal skill’ (Gramophone)

‘Beautifully sung. A most welcome release, which should win many converts to this repertoire’ (Choir & Organ)» More

‘The joy of this disc is that it ranges from the well-loved … through to works that will be unknown to most listeners, spanning all the while the full gamut of emotions’ (MusicWeb International)» More

‘As to the performances, they are quite superb. I must admit to knowing little about The Choir of Royal Holloway—a mix-voice collegiate choir that loses nothing by comparison with the better known choirs of Cambridge—and in Rupert Gough they have a conductor with a real feel for music of this type’ (Elgar Society)» More

«Le chœur londonien de Royal Holloway, Rupert Gough et ses jeunes étudiants trouvent le ton de chaque situation, le point d'équilibre entre fraicheur et maturité sonore, avec une mise en place irreprochable» (Diapason, France)» More

The castle by the sea is for two five-part choirs. Longfellow’s translation of Ludwig Uhland’s Das Schloss am Meere forms the basis of this part-song ballad in which choral antiphony and the full panoply of Stainer’s chromatic vocabulary are used to evoke the wondrous splendour of the medieval castle and coastal landscape; yet all is not well. Weeping is heard and, when the two choirs come together to form an opulent, ten-part threnody, a darkness descends as we realize, with Heine-esque irony, that the old king and queen mourn the death of their beautiful daughter.

from notes by Jeremy Dibble © 2016

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