PHI CD 225: Music from Castle Howard

Choral & Instrumental Music Medieval to Modern

Simon Lindley Organ
Francis Jackson Organ & Piano
Christopher Rathbone Piano
St Peters Singers
The Choir of Leeds Parish Church
Victoria Sharp Soprano

Two CD Set - £12.99

Total Playing Time: 2 Hours and 37 Minuets

CD ONE
Simon Lindley - Organ Recorded in the Chapel
[1]-[2] J.S. Bach: Toccata & Fugue in D minor BWV 565
Joseph Fiocco:
[3] Andante & [4] La Légère
[5] Johannes Brahms: Chorale Prelude: Es ist ein Ros' entsprungen from Op 122
[6] Pietro A. Yon: Humoresque 'L'organo primitivo' - Toccatina for the flute
Benedetto Marcello:
[7] Voluntary on Psalm 18
[8] Voluntary on Psalm 20
[9] Bernardo Pasquini: Partite sopra l' aria della Follia da Espagna
[10] Antonio Valente: La Romanesca (Napoli, 1575)
[11] Geoffrey Burgon: Theme from Brideshead Revisited
St Peter's Singers Directed by Simon Lindley Recorded in the Chapel
[12] Thomas Morley: Sing we and chant it
[13] Robert Pearsall: Lay a garland
[14] Arthur Sullivan: The long day closes
[15] Vaughan Williams: The dark eyed sailor
[16] Vaughan Williams: Just as the tide was flowing
[17] Charles V. Stanford: The blue bird Op. 119, No.
The Choir of Leeds Parish Church Directed by Simon Lindley
David Houlder - Organ Recorded in the Chapel
[18] Charles V. Stanford: Magnificat & [19] Nunc Dimittis in B flat
Francis Jackson at the Bösendorfer Piano Recorded in the Long Gallery
[20] Billy Mayerl: Marigold
[21] Maurice Ravel: Pavane pour une infante défunte
Francis Jackson - Organ Recorded in the Chapel
[22]-[25] Léon Boëllmann: Suite Gothique Op 25

CD TWO
The Choir of Leeds Parish Church Directed by Simon Lindley
David Houlder - Organ Recorded in the Chapel
[1] Charles Wood: O Thou the Central Orb Music Words by H.R. Bramley
[2] J.S. Bach: Jesu, joy of mans desiring from Cantata No.147
Christopher Rathbone at the historic 1830 Erard Piano
Recorded in the Long Gallery
Chopin: [3] Waltz in C sharp Op. 64 No. 2 [4] Mazurka in A minor Op. 17 No.4
[5] Fauré: Nocturne Op. 84 No. 8 in D flat
Victoria Sharp - Soprano & Christopher Rathbone at the Bösendorfer Piano
Recorded in the Long Gallery
[6] Anything goes Words & Music by Cole Porter
[7] Love is here to stay Words & Music by George & Ira Gershwin
[8] They can't take that away from me Words & Music by George & Ira Gershwin
[9] Isn't this a Lovely Day? Words & Music by Irving Berlin
[10] Just the way you look to-night Music by Jerome Kern Words by Dorothy Fields
[11] I'll build a stairway to paradise Music by George Gershwin
Words by B.G. De Silva & Arthur Francis
Christopher Rathbone at the Bösendorfer piano Recorded in the Long Gallery
[12] Brahms: Intermezzo in B flat Op.117 No.2
[13] Delius: Prelude No.1
Vaughan Williams from Six Short Pieces: [14] Slow Dance & [15] Quick Dance
[16] Balfour Gardiner: Gavotte
Debussy: [17] La fille aux cheveux de lin from Préludes, Book One
[18] Golliwogg's Cake-Walk from Children's Corner Suite
[19] Percy Grainger: Handel in the Strand [20] Country Gardens
Christopher Rathbone from Twenty five little preludes for piano solo:
[21] No.3 in G major [22] No.4 in E minor [23] No.5 in D major [24] No.7 in A major

Madeleine Dring from Colour Suite:
[25] Blue Air and [26] Yellow Hammers
Simon Lindley - organ Recorded in the Chapel
[27] César Franck: Choral No 3
The Choir of Leeds Parish Church directed by Simon Lindley
David Houlder - Organ Recorded in the Chapel
[28] H. Balfour Gardiner: Evening Hymn

Recorded July & August 2005 at Castle Howard, Yorkshire

Recorded, produced & graphic design by Martin Monkman, Amphion Recordings.
Acknowledgments:
Amphion Recordings expresses thanks to the Honourable Simon Howard for kindly permitting these recordings to be made, and to members of the staff at Castle Howard who assisted the performers during the recording sessions.
The Instruments:
The two pianos heard on these CDs are located in the Long Gallery and benefit from the favourable acoustic.
The Erard Piano is in a Rosewood case and the serial number indicates that it was built in Paris around 1830. This model with a wooden soundboard in a metal case, comes from the transitional period before all metal inside became normal. The piano is eight feet in length.
The Bösendorfer Piano is a hand built seven foot Grand with a walnut satin finish. It was purchased in 1991 and is an outstanding example of modern piano design. The piano has two extra notes in the bass register and a third pedal which sustains bass notes.
The Harrison & Harrison Organ in the Chapel was installed in 1873
The construction of Castle Howard was begun in 1699 when Charles, Third Earl of Carlisle engaged the architects Sir John Vanbrugh and Nicholas Hawksmoor,
The Long Gallery where the pianos are situated, is in the west wing of the house and was completed after Vanbrugh's death in 1726 to a design by the Fourth Earl's brother in law, Sir Thomas Robinson, in the Palladian style. From that time up to the present day, Castle Howard has been home to the Howard family.
Martin J. Monkman, Amphion Recordings, September 2009.

Released 9/9/09

THE PERFORMERS
Dr Francis Jackson C.B.E. (b.1917), a native of Malton, Yorkshire, was a chorister at York Minster from 1929 to 1933. He was a pupil of Sir Edward Bairstow (1874-1946), organist of York Minster, and gained the Fellowship of the Royal College of Organists with the Limpus Prize for the highest marks in organ playing in 1937. In the same year he graduated Bachelor of Music at Durham University and attained the doctorate there in 1957. He was Organist of Malton Parish Church at the age of sixteen in 1933 and succeeded Bairstow at York Minster in 1946.
Dr Jackson has given organ recitals throughout Great Britain, and in Eire, Germany, France, Italy, Hungary, Switzerland and Denmark. In addition, he has made several tours of the U.S.A. and Canada. In 1978 he visited the major cities of Australia and Tasmania and in 1981 was a participant in the first Perth Organ and Harpsichord Festival in Western Australia.
He has been a frequent broadcaster on B.B.C. radio, and has made many recordings of organ music and with York Minster Choir, whose director he was until his retirement in 1982. He has played concertos with several British orchestras and at the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts.
Francis Jackson has written extensively for the Church, and his output, in addition to anthems and service settings, includes six organ sonatas, along with many other pieces for the same instrument. In 1961-62 Dr Jackson was President of the Incorporated Association of Organists, and in 1972 was elected to the same office in the Royal College of Organists for a two-year term. He is Honorary Fellow of both the Royal School of Church Music and Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey. In 1978 he was appointed O.B.E. in the New Year Honours. On retiring as organist of York Minster he received the Fellowship of the Royal Northern College of Music, the Doctorate of York University and, at the hands of the Archbishop of York (the late Lord Blanch) the Order of Saint William of York. In 1996 the Ebor Press of York published Dr Jackson's biography of Bairstow, entitled Blessed City, the life and works of Edward C. Bairstow (ISBN 1 85972 192 0). In 2007 Dr Jackson was appionted a C.B.E

Dr Simon Lindley is Organist of Leeds Parish Church and of Leeds Town Hall. At the Church his duties include the direction of its famous Choir and of St Peter's Singers and Chamber Orchestra. Simon is Senior Assistant Music Officer for Leeds City Council's Leisure Services Department. He is closely involved in many aspects of the musical life of the West Riding of Yorkshire - not least with Brass Bands and Choral Societies - and on the national canvas is associated with all the leading national institutions for the organ and for church music.
A notable début recital at London's Westminster Cathedral and, particularly, his performance of the Elgar Sonata at the 1975 Henry Wood Promenade Concerts established his reputation as a player of distinctive style - a reputation consolidated by many recitals, concerts, recordings and broadcasts. Previous Amphion discs include PHI CD 178: Northern Lights, Organ Music from Leeds Parish Church and he directs St Peter's Singers on the recordings of the two monodramas with music by Dr Francis Jackson - Daniel in Babylon and A Time of Fire, both recorded in Leeds Parish Church. A Fellow of the Royal College of Organists (he was President of the College from 2000 to 2002) and of Trinity College of Music, Simon Lindley is the recipient of Honorary Fellowships from the Royal School of Church Music, the Guild of Church Musicians and Leeds College of Music. In Autumn of 2001, an Honorary Doctorate of Leeds Metropolitan University was conferred upon him in recognition of his services to the musical and civic life of his adopted city. Born in London, the son of an Anglican priest and a writer, Simon was educated at Magdalen College School, Oxford and the Royal College of Music.
Before moving to Yorkshire in 1975, he held posts in the City of London, at Westminster Cathedral and, as Peter Hurford's first full-time Assistant at St Albans Cathedral from 1970. He was also Director of Music to St Albans School. Non musical interests include walking, travel (especially rail travel), inland waterways, cooking and local history. Simon Lindley lives at the Moravian Settlement at Fulneck, south of Pudsey at the confluence of the West Riding industrial and rural heartland.

Christopher Rathbone was born in 1947 at Selsdon, Surrey, he is an all-round musician, equally at home on the organ, piano or harpsichord, singing tenor, composing, directing choirs and orchestras.
Christopher grew up in Croydon and went up to read music at St. Catharine's Cambridge, also taking a postgraduate MusB in organ and composition. In 1970 he became the first ever Assistant Organist at Carisle Cathedral, then spent 23 years as organist at Marlborough College; he also served as Musical Director of Swindon Opera.
In 1996 he joined his wife in a move to Leeds, where he became organist of Meanwood Parish Church and Musical Director of Morley Music Society and later the Bradford Chorale. He gave weekly recitals at Meanwood, and many at Leeds Parish Church and elsewhere. Three CD s of his music were produced by Amphion, and BJM of Calverley published 21 compositions (0113 255 5426).
After two years in Sussex in 2007 Christopher moved back to Yorkshire to be Director of Music at St. Margaret's Ilkley.
Find more about Christopher and his music on www.rathbonemusic.co.uk. A new Evening Service, Op 111, was performed in Bristol Cathedral in August 2009. Christopher has three children and 5 grand children, and loves walking, cooking, gardening and the natural world.

St Peter's Singers - a Chamber Choir of some three dozen mixed voices - is based in the City of Leeds. Founded in 1977 by Harry Fearnley (the senior adult member of the Choir of Leeds Parish Church), the Singers sustain a close relationship with the historic mother Church of Leeds (Saint Peter-at-Leeds, Kirkgate) - a link also maintained by their sister group, St Peter's Chamber Orchestra. The members of St Peter's Singers have established an enviable reputation for their performance of sacred choral music, especially that of the Baroque era. St Peter's Singers is a registered charity.

Leeds Parish Church Choir, directed since 1975 by Dr Simon Lindley, maintains a tradition of daily sung services established by Dr Walter Hook, the Vicar of Leeds who also ordered the rebuilding of the old church in 1841. The boys and lay-clerks sing two fully choral services every every Sunday, Wednesday and Friday, the boys alone sing Monday evensong, and the men alone on Thursday. (A separate girls choir sings a Saturday service, so only Tuesday is 'dumb'). The boys come from schools all over Leeds and rehearse six days a week. Among Dr Lindley's predecessors as Organist and Master of the Music are S.S. Wesley, Sir Edward Bairstow, Melville Cook and Donald Hunt.

David Houlder is Sub Organist of Leeds Parish Church and Director of the Church's Girls Choir. He came to Leeds in 2003 after almost twenty years' service at Liverpool Cathedral as Sub Organist; he was also Director of Music at Liverpool Blue Coat School.
A notable interpreter of English music, David is much in demand as both solo organist and choral accompanist, being Principal Organist to the Halifax Choral Society and St. Peter's Singers in Leeds. Recent CD recordings include Greatly Loved Hymns from Leeds Parish Church and Carols & Brass with the Halifax Choral Society and Black Dyke Band. His non-musical interests include shipping, railways and photography.

Victoria Sharp is a versatile soprano, equally at home in opera, musicals, art songs or light music. Born in Lancashire, she has been a member of the chorus of Opera North since the early 1990s, and frequently takes small solo roles with the company. In addition she works with local choirs and orchestras in bigger roles such as Turandot. She gave the first performance of A Garland of Spirituals arranged especially by Christopher Rathbone with the chorus of Morley Music Society in 1999 and recorded his song cycle 'The Turning Year' in 2003 for Amphion.