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The text of Kenneth Leighton's cantata Crucifixus pro nobis is the ecclesiastical equivalent of a snuff movie, the blue lips, gushing blood and ugly bruises of the crucified Christ's body dwells on lugubriously in the Jesuit Patrick Carey's poem, with the ostensible aim of heaping blame upon the listener.
The graphic images invite boldly expressionistic music, but...
Kenneth Leighton's remarkably consistent musical style means that his characteristic traits, such as extensive use of chromaticism and syncopation, plus intricate counterpoint, are ever present. However, anyone expecting his music to sound all the same should listen to the two radically different settings of the Magnificat and Nunc dimittis. The adventurous harmonic language often leads to tonal...
Latvian composer Ēriks Ešenvalds goes from strength to strength, if the evidence of this exemplary recording is anything to go by. Two years as a Fellow-Commoner at Trinity College, Cambridge (2011-13) coincided with a development of his musical language towards greater simplicity, with diatonicism and homophonic textures dominating. The Choir of Trinity College and director Stephen Layton give...
The Trinity College Choir Cambridge under the direction of Stephen Layton give superlative performances of varied and engaging choral works by the Latvian composer Eriks Ešenvalds. Contemporary music making at its best.
Gavin Engelbrecht
The text of Kenneth Leighton's cantata Crucifixus pro nobis is the ecclesiastical equivalent of a snuff movie, the blue lips, gushing blood and ugly bruises of the crucified Christ's body dwells on lugubriously in the Jesuit Patrick Carey's poem, with the ostensible aim of heaping blame upon the listener.
The graphic images invite boldly expressionistic music, but in fact for much of the time...
"Kenneth Leighton's music is at the heart of English Cathedral repertoire," so says the introduction to Hyperion's earlier disc of the composer's choral music from Wells Cathedral (CDA67641). During the couple of years I spent in Oxford it certainly seemed that way. I can remember quite vividly that his music often featured at choral evensong and other services, and I especially remember a...