This solemn, impressive chorus, expansive and symphonic in scale, forms the prologue to Elgar’s oratorio The Apostles (1903), which was written three years after The Dream of Gerontius and intended to be the first part of a trilogy (only two-thirds completed, in the event) on the theme of the early history of the Christian church. Its fluently melodious, gracious style, reminiscent of the composer’s Liebeslieder waltzes, established it as a favourite in its own right, and in English translation it soon found a place in the Anglican anthem repertoire. This is the fourth of the seven movements of Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem (1868). The piano accompaniment, which bears traces of an imagined orchestral version, was orchestrated for this recording. The piece quickly became a favourite and (unusually with Schubert) was soon published. It was written for a soirée given in Vienna by four musical sisters, the Fröhlichs, one of whom was a singing teacher. Schubert composed this setting-originally not of the text in English, as heard here, but of Moses Mendelssohn’s German version of the renowned psalm-in 1820. Operatic influence is clearly to the fore, a sign of the direction Mozart’s life was to take in the final decade of his life. Unforgettably sung at the wedding of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson by Arleen Augér only seven years before her untimely death, this ravishing aria is the fifth of the seven movements comprising Mozart’s Vesperae solennes de confessore of 1780, one of the last of his Salzburg church compositions written before the move to freelance life in Vienna the following year ended his contractual obligation to write sacred music.
My next thought was that I wanted to write music which would be welcoming in spirit to the royal couple, their families, and to the many people witnessing this happy occasion all over the world.’ The composer writes: ‘My first thought was that the text should embrace both rejoicing and blessing, and I chose verses from five psalms which seemed to encompass what I wanted to express on behalf of us all.
Commissioned by the Dean and Chapter of Westminster Abbey as a wedding gift for Prince William and Kate Middleton, this anthem was composed early in 2011, with a brief that it should be about 4-5 minutes in length, for choir and organ, with a text from the psalms.
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