Choir of St John's College, Cambridge, Kenneth Leighton - Sacred Choral Music
STYLE: Choral RATING OUR PRODUCT CODE: 9849- LABEL: Naxos 8555795 FORMAT: CD Album RRP: £4.99
Reviewed by Steven Whitehead
Kenneth Leighton was born in Wakefield in 1929. As a boy he sang in his home cathedral before he went up to Queen's College, Oxford, where he studied composition with Bernard Rose. This generous and very reasonably priced collection shows us just what an accomplished composer Leighton was and hints at what he may have gone on to achieve had he lived past his 60th birthday. His distinctive compositional voice is characterised by rich harmonies, subtle dissonance and rhythmic energy. On offer here are two contrasting Canticle Settings, the "Easter Sequence" featuring some splendid trumpet playing by Crispian Steele-Perkins and "Crucifixus Pro Nobis", a 15 minute miniature Passion which climaxes with a beautiful "Drop, drop, slow tears". The Choir of St John's College with Christopher Whitton on organ do full justice to the music and if this is to be Christopher Robinson's swan song as organist and director of music at St John's he can be very pleased with the final result.
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