Noted with Pleasure, Charles Wood: St Mark Passion.

The relatively obscure St Mark Passion by Sir Charles Wood deserves more recognition.

This setting of the St Mark Passion is by one of England’s finest choral composers, Charles Wood. It was commissioned by none other than the Rev’d Dr Eric Milner-White, who gave us the well known Ceremony of Nine Lessons and Carols, now heard around the world at Twelvetide in performances good, indifferent and atrocious, more often than not the last.

Wood’s St Mark Passion has enjoyed nowhere near the success of Lessons and Carols, though it is performed occasionally in England at Passiontide. That’s a pity because it is a lovely, well-crafted work. Particularly effective is the composer’s setting and use of the plainchant Pange lingua gloriosi. Also noteworthy, his setting of the hymn by Francis Xavier, My God I Love Thee (No. 7), which never fails to move this writer to the quick.

The recording shown above is the only one of the work known to your Tatler and is, happily, a fine one. The choir and soloists are all superb, as are both the organist, Daniel Hyde, and the organ itself. Recorded in the chapel of St John’s College, Cambridge with its excellent acoustic for music, along with first rate engineering by Naxos, the audio is of demonstration quality. If you have a decent sound system this recording will give extra pleasure. You can listen to it here.