Anna Lapwood: Choral Odyssey

For her wide-ranging playlist, organist, and choir director Anna Lapwood goes in search of some of the world’s most engaging choral music, inspired, she tells Apple Music Classical, by a trip to Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim, Norway. “It was a bit of a wake-up call,” says Lapwood, “a moment of realization that there are so many different choral traditions just as rich and vibrant as ours in the UK, all with their own incredible repertoire, much of which is unfamiliar to British choirs.” Lapwood has conducted the Pembroke College Chapel Choir in performances of many of her chosen pieces, although, she adds, “I’ve also enjoyed discovering new music which I want to learn over the next couple of years.” Highlights include the opening track, Mariavise composed by one of Lapwood’s friends, Petra Bjørkhaug, one of the organists of Nidaros Cathedral. “It’s from an incredible album Mor, exploring the concept of motherhood,” says Lapwood, “and this track is a beautifully atmospheric setting of a traditional folk song, recorded in the vast acoustic of the Cathedral.” Another piece close to Lapwood’s heart is Lise Borel’s Regina caeli, a motet that the composer wrote for the choir she sang in, the Maîtrise Notre-Dame de Paris. “I have conducted this with the Pembroke Upper Voices. It’s demanding but incredibly fun to sing, following the harmonic twists and turns, and trusting the group to work together in managing the shifts of tempo and mood,” says Lapwood. “There’s something about knowing it was written for friends that makes it all the more poignant to listen to.” A third highlight is O/Modernt Chamber Orchestra’s reinterpretation of Tavener’s “Mother of God, Here I Stand,” featuring improvisation on the sarod, an Indian stringed instrument. “There is something so haunting about the moment the strings first join the sarod,” suggests Lapwood. “It’s as if the strings are the unfamiliar texture rather than the sarod itself.”