From Evensong webcasts to its own label, the chapel of King’s College, Cambridge has stepped boldly into the 21st century. Martin Cullingford pays a visit to explore the entrepreneurial spirit of this historic institution

Cambridge has always been a wonderful mix of the historical and progressive, of classical courtyards and cutting-edge labs, where medieval rooms generate ideas that will shape the future. Or where Gothic fan vaulting echoes with a contemporary carol on an annual basis, just as King’s College Chapel famously does every Christmas in its Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, where a new commission sits prominently among the traditional.

That may be the choir’s most famous event, but it’s just the highest-profile part of a continually developing centuries-old tradition – and like all successful traditions, one with a keen eye to the here-and-now. Step into a vestry down the south side of the chapel and you’ll now find it permanently wired with the latest recording equipment, ready to capture and stream online the daily Evensong services, a step also taken by other choirs in Cambridge and beyond. This choir rooted in the reign of Henry VI is now fully plugged into the podcast era. Or indeed into whatever future listening habits hold. As Director of Music Stephen Cleobury puts it: ‘We don’t know how people will listen to music in five years’ time – but we will be equipped to be part of whatever that is.’

Every service since spring 2013 has been recorded using this system, which draws on eight mics in the chapel, and one service a week has been posted online since September

When old and new sit side by side in harmony last year. They’re tracked, as a CD would be (not that anyone is encouraging listeners to skip over the spoken liturgy), and the plan is to make the archive available on commercial streaming services such as Spotify (which won’t, however, contain the spoken parts of the service). Though King’s won’t reveal exact figures, they do say each service has been streamed ‘thousands of times’.

It’s only the second of two recent recording initiatives for King’s, the other being the launch of its own label two years ago. With 100 albums on EMI (now Warner Classics) and Decca, the move enabled the choir to take complete charge, and ownership, of its recordings. The label is also very much a college-wide project – King’s academics will work on text translations or write booklet-notes, for example. And even the chapel’s media and recording officer, Ben Sheen, sings alto in the choir.

This month sees the release of the latest issue, Fauré’s Requiem. Though the piece isn’t new to the choir’s catalogue, this is the first recording (by anyone) of a reconstruction by Marc Rigaudière of the first complete liturgical performance of the work.

One difference to the more familiar version is the shape of the ensemble, a smaller one consisting of violas, cellos and basses, with solo violin and brass in various sections, and here played by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment using instruments typical of a late-19th-century French orchestra. The attention to detail also extends to the organ: only stops available to the

16 GRAMOPHONE OCTOBER 2014

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