Manchester Boys Choir - Father in Heaven Above - Donizetti opera

Proper title, Mary Stuart's Prayer. This is one of the most beautiful and poignant treble choir recordings I have ever heard, from Manchester Boys Choir, founded in 1981. The info on the LP sleeve says the founder NEVER turned away any boy who wanted to join and maintained that he could teach any boy to sing. Seems he was right! Absolute perfection. Just sound I'm afraid, so I've added a slideshow of glorious skies at dusk. (Sounds much better in full stereo... message me if you'd like it.)

Remember: this is NOT a cathedral or school choir, but a volunteer, free time choir. Stunnning.

From Donizetti's Maria Stuarda

You can download the soundtrack of this file here:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/7lp9zw

It's not stereo, I hope to make that available when I've located my original again!

Category:

Music

Tags:

• treble
• choir
• choristers
• boy
• manchester
• mary
• stuart
• prayer
• father
• in
• heaven
• above
• donizetti
• opera

[calliand]

Great to see an MBC song on the web. Only wish there were more to watch. I was a memeber of the choir for many years and the experience was fantastic. The director was a genius as we did not audition and came from a wide range of social backgrounds. People simply could not believe we did not go to some sort of music school. Anyway thank you for putting this up.

[notyobs]

@calliand Your wish is granted. There's one more now, I uploaded "Count Your Blessings" the other day. Hope to add some more over the coming days. I notice the copyright holders have flagged their claim to these recodings with Youtube, but thankfully have not had them removed. Hope that remains the case.

[222nietzsche]

Thats my mum playing the piano, oh yes!

[notyobs]

@222nietzsche I've just uploaded "Count your Blessings" Is your mum playing on that too. I suspect it's the same pianist, not least because of the perfection of the playing!! Anyway, your post prompted me to dig the music out and practice. I've been playing along to this recording, and reckon I can now play it as well as your mum did.... well, maybe almost :-)

[babbopieta]

Can anyone here tell me where I might be able to find the sheet music for the MBC version of Count Your Blessings?

[strawberrysip77]

my two sons where in the 'Manchester Boys Choir ' David and Gerard Hennigan x

[notyobs]

@SantaSanta247 I think the policy of not naming soloists was misguided. Anyone brave enough to sing solo deserves credit for it, especially if they make a good job of it. And no, I'm not female, there's no more reason to think it's sissy for a male to enjoy boys choral music than there is to think it's sissy for a boy or a man to sing in a choir!! I love all types of choral music, but - for me - the best and purest sound by far comes from boys choirs.

[notyobs]

@Evandavsim Almost any English cathedral choir, the college choirs of Oxford and Cambridge, St Phillips/Libera. The perception by some that the Vienna Boys Choir is the 'best in the world' springs I'm sure simply from the fact that's it's probably the best KNOWN in the world, that's all. The quality of sound - particularly the harmonising - produced by Manchester Boys Choir in the recordings I have from the 80s is far superior to VBC and achieved with fewer voices.

[notyobs]

@calliand Thanks. I remember seeing that when it was on TV in the very late 80s!! What's the MBC connection, is it MBC really doing the singing?

[notyobs]

@planetkitchen What's the 'Crawdad Song'??

[calliand]

If anyone is interested the Angel voices film is partly uploaded to youtube. Just enter Manchester Boys Choir Angel Voices into the search bar.

[notyobs]

@kalriki Thanks, that's really useful to know. I have an MBC LP which I haven't looked at since I bought it way way back around 1990, I shall have to see what other goodies are on there! Also, two or three of those MBC tracks on a CD I have of another choir. I think they were stuck on the end to fill up the CD. Thing is, the MBC singing is SO much better than the rest of the CD, which I *think* is Seaford College choir in Sussex. Shall have to dig it out and check.