HOME       ART & ARCHITECTURE       CATHEDRAL LIFE       MUSIC       EVENTS       SHOP     TEXT ONLY   LISTEN TO MUSIC
  VISITOR INFORMATION       CHILDREN'S AREA       HOW YOU CAN HELP      SITE GUIDE  

Shop >

Your visit remembered

After your virtual visit, just like a real one, you may wish to take something away with you as a reminder.

New Cathedral Guidebook

The new guidebook, published by Jarrold, with text by Mgr Mark Langham, is now available from the Cathedral Gift Shop. (PB 0 7117 4149 2 £4.95)

Celebrate our beloved Cathedral with two
beautiful gift books!
Westminster Cathedral: From Darkness to Light
This readable and attractive book, written by Patrick Rogers, celebrates the centenary of the opening of Westminster Cathedral. An ideal gift, tastefully illustrated with over 25 black and white photographs and with a message from Sir Roy Strong. (PB 0 8601 2358 8 £14.99)

Chapters of gold: The Life of Mary in Mosaics
A book of meditations on the life of Our Lady by Lady Rachel Billington, illustrated with beautiful full colour photos taken from the mosaics in the Lady Chapel at Westminster Cathedral. These have been specially photographed for this book by Gered Mankowitz, with a preface by the Duchess of Kent and commendations by Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor and Archbishop Rowan Williams. (HB 0 8601 2350 2 £7.99)


Buy them both through this link to Amazon and you will automatically donate a percentage of your total sale to Westminster Cathedral!
 

Otherwise you can buy them both for only £17.98 (plus P&P) Telephone Orca Book Services on 01202 665432 with your credit card details and quote ref: SOURCE CODE WCC1 or email: orders@orcabookservices.co.uk

Westminster Cathedral Choir's Latest Release -

 Palestrina Third Book of Lamentations
Westminster Cathedral Choir
Martin Baker Master of Music

Palestrina composed four sets of Lamentations, the third of which is recorded here. This most opulent of liturgies runs as a continuous narrative describing momentous Biblical events from the Last Supper through to Christ’s crucifixion and death. Throughout the centuries composers of sacred music have aspired to do justice to this most dramatic of scenarios and Palestrina’s settings rank amongst the finest. He employs a rich harmonic palette, constantly varying the vocal texture and using up to seven voice-parts simultaneously.

The Choir of Westminster Cathedral has an unparalleled reputation. Since its inception under Cardinal Vaughan and Richard Runciman Terry the choir’s uniquely ‘continental’ sound and its position as the world’s only Catholic cathedral choir to sing the full daily liturgy have met with consistent and repeated acclaim.
(Hyperion CDA 67610)

Recent Releases -
Christmas Vespers at Westminster Cathedral
Westminster Cathedral Choir
Matthew Martin organ
Martin Baker Master of Music
This disc presents an adorned version of the Office of Vespers as it might be heard on the eve of Christmas in Westminster Cathedral, a building steeped in art, music and spirituality.

The chant on this disc is the golden thread which runs throughout the entire liturgy giving the Office a natural rhythm and inevitability as well as clarity of text and beautiful language; it is complemented here by motets and canticles by Thomas Tallis, Tomás Luis de Victoria and Heinrich Schütz, while Jean Langlais’s massive Fête for organ concludes the service.
(Hyperion CDA 67522)
Brahms Missa canonica
Rheinberger Mass
Westminster Cathedral Choir
Matthew Martin organ
Martin Baker Master of Music


Brahms’s Missa canonica is something of a rarity: composed around 1856, the work lay unperformed until 1983 despite being regarded highly enough by its composer for him to have re-used some of its material in the popular motet Warum ist das Licht gegeben?. The absence of both Gloria and Credo settings (these texts being too long to be easily suited to the form of a canon) probably explains the neglect, yet the four movements of this work show all the hallmarks of Brahms’s compositional mastery and deft handling of choral effect that are well known from his many motets, six of which, including the sublime Op 30 Geistliches Lied, are also recorded here.

Concluding this new disc from Westminster Cathedral is the extraordinary double-choir Mass in E flat by Joseph Rheinberger, Liechtenstein’s most famous organ prodigy. This is music born of the polychoral Venetian tradition of Gabrieli and Monteverdi, nurtured on the harmonic milk of Bach and Mendelssohn, and finally offered up to the world as a miniature choral symphony that is uniquely Rheinberger’s.
(Hyperion CDA 67559)

Vaughan Williams Mass in G Minor
Judith Bingham Mass
Westminster Cathedral Choir
Robert Quinney organ
Martin Baker Master of Music


Vaughan Williams's Mass in G MInor has been described as the first "English" Mass setting since the sixteenth century and the time of Tallis and Byrd. In this new performance of the work, which had its first liturgical performance at Westminster Cathedral in 1923, the Choir of Westminster Cathedral promises to set a new standard.

Also included are Vaughan Williams's Te Deum, O Vos Omnes, Valiant-for-Truth and A vision of aeroplanes.

Judith Bingham now counts among the pantheon of composers who have responded to commissions from Westminster Cathedral - including Vaughan Williams, Howells, Holst and Britten. Her Mass recently won a British Composer Award for Liturgical Music and the new recording offers it a place in the repertory beyond the cloister. (Hyperion CDA 67503)

Victoria’s Ave Regina Caelorum and other Marian music.
The disc presents a collection of mainly double-choir music by Victoria, who is thought of as the greatest composer of the Spanish 16th century. The Choir's recording is called 'magnificent' by the Daily Telegraph, which says 'recordings of Renaissance polyphony rarely come much better than this.' (Hyperion CDA 67479).

Maxwell Davies: Sacred choral music
Missa parvula; Mass; Veni Creator Spiritus; Dum complerentur; Reliqui domum meum; Veni Sancte Spiritus
Westminster Cathedral Choir,
Robert Quinney organ / Martin Baker


This disc presents two new settings of the Mass by the new Master of The Queen’s Music, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. Both works were composed for, and first performed by, The Choir of Westminster Cathedral. Also on this disc are the Two Latin Motets, and two organ works based on plainchant themes. (Hyperion CDA 67454).

These CDs are available from the Cathedral Gift Shop or alternatively you can buy on line at www.hyperion-records.co.uk.

   



Westminster Cathedral Cuff-Links
In sterling silver, featuring the Great Seal of Westminster Cathedral embossed in black and red, and beautifully presented, they are available in the gift shop at £35 a pair, or online at www.purejewels.com - they make a perfect Christmas gift!
 

Gift Aid
If you are a UK taxpayer, you can add an extra 28p to every £1 that you give - at no cost to yourself - with Gift Aid. All you have to do is to fill in a form (giving your name, address and the date) and sign a declaration saying that you pay more tax than the amount that we will reclaim. Leaflets and Gift Aid envelopes are at the back of the Cathedral.

In the future we want to have a secure e-commerce service for you but until then please contact us in the traditional way to make your purchases.

The Cathedral Gift Shop is open Monday to Friday from 9.30am to 5.15pm, Saturday and Sunday 10.00am to 4.45pm. Credit cards welcome.







Celebrate our Cathedral with
two beautiful new books!


 

 

© Westminster Cathedral 2002   |   Credits  |   Glossary   |   Privacy and Legal

Westminster Cathedral   42 Francis Street, London SW1P 1QW   United Kingdom
Email us Tel: 020 7798 9055   Fax: 020 7798 9090   Registered Charity Number 233699