Moment 5

The Gobbi Jobbie

Moment 5

The Crucifixion

Moment 6

Pearlfishers in Verona

Listen to the Duet - ‘So Thou Liftest Thy Divine petition’

from Stainer’s Crucifixion

Harvey and Stephen Hill with Mike Dixon organ

Recorded in The Old Chapel Studio Shotesham Norfolk 2014

My dear father was a staunch supporter of the church in West Malling. He got involved in the lighting when the old gas fitments needed replacing. For a while he was even a church warden. So it was no surprise that when the organist and choirmaster, Alec Briggs, was planning to put on a performance of Stainer’s Crucifixion in the late 50’s my father volunteered to find a famous soloist which might fill the church and hence add receipts to the new lighting fund! Every month he would go to London to the Overseas League to listen to the Glee Club that met and performed there. He would always return on the last train arriving home rather unsteady - this monthly excursion was always well refreshed! One of his regular friends in the Glee Club was John Whitworth who was then one of the country’s leading counter tenors whilst also a ‘gentleman’ in the Westminster Abbey Choir. My father it seemed offered John Whitworth as soloist for this performance and the offer was gratefully received by Mr Briggs our organist, even though the soloist was usually a conventional tenor. This performance was also my debut as the baritone soloist – and so it was that I found myself standing next to a very famous singer straight off the train from London performing the following duet – “So Thou Liftest Thy Divine Petition” without any rehearsal - another ‘musical moment’ difficult to forget.

MOMENT - 5 The Crucifixion West Malling

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