Rejoice, the Lord is King! (2014)

performed by Jonathan Brown (vocals), Julian Empett (vocals), Robert Quinney (organ), Choir of Westminster Abbey (choir, chorus), James O'Donnell (conductor)
composed by Charles Villiers Stanford, Charles Wesley, George Frederick Handel, Henry Purcell, Herbert Howells, Hubert Parry, James O'Donnell, Jessie Seymour Irvine, John Goss, John Hughes, Orlando Gibbons, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Sidney Campbell, William Croft

This 2014 Hyperion collection of 22 hymns sung by the Choir of Westminster Abbey is a straightforward presentation of familiar versions for choir and organ. For the most part, the arrangements are conventional four-part settings, with occasional interpolations of seldom-heard harmonizations and descants, and the performances by the men and boys are appropriately reverent and joyous. The majority of selections are hymns of praise, including Praise, my soul, the king of heaven; Thine be the glory; and Praise to the Lord, the ... Read More

This 2014 Hyperion collection of 22 hymns sung by the Choir of Westminster Abbey is a straightforward presentation of familiar versions for choir and organ. For the most part, the arrangements are conventional four-part settings, with occasional interpolations of seldom-heard harmonizations and descants, and the performances by the men and boys are appropriately reverent and joyous. The majority of selections are hymns of praise, including Praise, my soul, the king of heaven; Thine be the glory; and Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, though Drop, drop slow tears; I bind unto myself today; and Let all mortal flesh keep silence bring a more somber and penitential mood to the program. The recordings were made in late 2012 and early 2013 in Westminster Abbey, so the sound of the album is typically resonant and spacious, and the choir has a well-blended tone, though the trade-off for the glorious acoustics is a loss of clarity in some of the words. ~ Blair Sanderson, Rovi Read Less