1964 – The Choir of King’s College, Cambridge
1963 landmark recording of Allegri’s Miserere featuring treble soloist Roy Goodman, set in the context of Choral Evensong for Ash Wednesday.
Recordings on the Argo label
Argo Records was founded by Harley Usill and Cyril Clarke in 1951 with the intention of recording “British music played by British artists”, but the company’s releases expanded to include spoken word recordings and other projects. Bought by Decca in 1957, Argo became a fundamental exponent of the British choral tradition with an extensive catalogue of releases by choirs such as King’s College, Cambridge and St John’s College, Cambridge.
1965 – The Choir of King’s College, Cambridge
1963 landmark recording of Allegri’s Miserere featuring treble soloist Roy Goodman – reissued in 1965 as a 45 rpm EP.
1972 – The Choir of King’s College, Cambridge
This compilation album was released in 1972, the same year the curator of miserere.org was born. The ‘World of King’s opens with ‘Zadok the Priest’ (Handel) and besides the ‘Miserere’ contains treasures such as ‘This is the record of John’ (Gibbons) and Croft’s ‘Burial Service’ – notable in the King’s recording for being sung in procession around the chapel. For many, this will be the first time that the ‘Miserere’ was heard, and the release of this compilation was, in our opinion, part of the reason that Allegri’s ‘Miserere’ is so recognisable and appreciated today.
1979 – The Choir of King’s College, Cambridge
This four-disc compilation box set released in 1979 is a hint towards the more recent ‘Complete Argo Recordings’ CD box sets issued by Decca. It contains a wealth of music from King’s on the Argo label, including of course the Miserere from ‘Evensong for Ash Wednesday’.