Archbishop Bernard Longley
Michael Berkeley meets the new Roman Catholic Archbishop of Birmingham, Bernard Longley. His choices include music by Borodin, Bax, Poulenc, Verdi, Messiaen and Vaughan Williams.
On this Easter Sunday edition of Private Passions, Michael Berkeley meets the newly-appointed Roman Catholic Archbishop of Birmingham, Bernard Longley. He studied singing at the Royal Northern College of Music and at New College Oxford, and music has always been a great passion in his life. His choices include the famous Notturno movement from Borodin's Second String Quartet - a piece associated with the musical 'Kismet' which his mother particularly loved, - and the epilogue of Arnold Bax''s Third Symphony, a work which deserves to be heard more often. There's also the harrowing ending of Poulenc's opera 'Dialogues des Carmelites' - which Bernard Longley greatly admires as bearing witness to the courage and sacrifice of the Carmelite nuns during the French Revolution - as well as sacred choral music by Verdi - the Rex tremendae from the Requiem; Messiaen - his exquisite motet 'O sacrum convivium', which Bernard Longley sang when he was a member of the choir at New College, Oxford; Vaughan Williams - the Kyrie from the Mass in G minor, sung by the choir of Westminster Cathedral where Bernard Longley worked before his appointment to Birmingham; and Elgar - an extract from 'The Dream of Gerontius', first performed in Birmingham's Town Hall, and forever linked with the words of Cardinal Newman, a crucial figure in the life of the Birmingham Roman Catholic diocese.
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Music Played
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Alexander Borodin
String Quartet No. 2 in D (3rd movement, Notturno)
Performer: The Lindsays
- ASV CD DCA 1143.
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Giuseppe Verdi
Rex tremendae (includes Salva me)(from the Requiem)
Performers: Maria Stader (soprano), Marianna Radev (mezzo soprano), Helmut Krebs (tenor), Kim Borg (bass), Choir of St Hedwig’s Cathedral, RIAS Chamber Choir, RIAS Symphony Orchestra, Berlin/Ferenc Fricsay
- DG 447 442-2.
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Olivier Messiaen
O sacrum convivium
performers: The Choir of New College Oxford/Edward Higginbottom, David Newsholme (organ)
- AVIE AV 2084.
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Arnold Bax
Third Symphony (epilogue to the 3rd movement, finale)
Performers: 91Èȱ¬ Philharmonic/Vernon Handley
- CHANDOS 10122(5).
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Francis Poulenc
Dialogues des Carmélites (Act 3, tableau 4, Place de la Révolution)
Performers: Brigitte Fournier (Constance), Catherine Dubosc (Blanche), Choir and Orchestra of Lyon Opera/Kent Nagano
- VIRGIN 759227-2.
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Ralph Vaughan Williams
Mass in G (Kyrie)
Performers: Westminster Cathedral Choir/Martin Baker
- HYPERION CDA 67503.
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Edward Elgar
Sanctus fortis (from The Dream of Gerontius)
Performers: John Mitchinson (Gerontius), CBSO/Simon Rattle
- EMI CDS 749549-2.
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