“Religious Services” 11 - High Mass: Westminster Cathedral 1953 (William Hyde)

BBC Transcription LP recorded 9 November 1953, featuring the choir of Westminster Roman Catholic Cathedral, directed by William Hyde. Organist: A Maxwell Fernie. Introduced by Richard Dimbleby.

This is the eleventh of a series of fifteen religious services specially recorded in 1953 and early 1954 by the BBC Transcription Service. They are very early examples of LP gramophone records and are extremely rare. They were never broadcast and neither were the LPs ever issued. Other choirs in the series include the choirs of Worcester, Hereford, Ely, Southwark, Durham, Salisbury, Paisley and Chichester cathedrals, as well as the choirs of St John’s College Cambridge and New College Oxford, and the chapel choir of Christ’s Hospital School at Horsham.

The Archive has recently acquired the Worcester and Westminster LPs and now the hunt is on for the others. Please get in touch, if you have them!