Magnificent Mendelssohn

Choir of St John’s College provides delightful aural pleasure.

Composer: Mendelssohn
Repertoire: Sacred Choral Music
Artists: Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge/David Hill

Rating: 4/5

Genre: Vocal

Label: Hyperion CDA67558

Having completed an accomplished English music series, the Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge, under its new director David Hill, turns to the world of German Protestant church music. The sonorous St John’s sound remains in rude health, much to the advantage of works that are all too often, and ruinously, delivered in the musical equivalent of sepia tone colours. Hill encourages his singers to bring out the contrasts between Mendelssohn’s Bach-inspired part writing, clear and classically proportioned, and the more Romantic sentiments of such pieces as ‘Hör mein Bitten’ and ‘Mitten wir in Leben sind’.