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I may not always like the music, but never has a recording of choral music conducted by Stephen Layton failed to move me. This one is no exception, and in this particular case, the music happens to be admirable. The choral works of Herbert Howells (1892-1983), including his Requiem, are well represented in the recording catalogues and very well served. But even though the market may be saturated...
This is a fine programme for Howells fans, eschewing the 'Coll. Reg.' canticles and the organ works, and including the lesser-heard Salve Regina and the Hymn for St Ceciliaas well as the 'Gloucester' canticles. The Requiem itself, like the other unaccompanied pieces here, is recorded in the gorgeous reverberation of the Lady Chapel at Ely Cathedral. Those works with organ are done at Lincoln...
Will only male choirs do for Howells's sacred music? So previous commentators have insisted, though only the most rigid epigone would say the same for the cantatas of Bach. By the same token, well-enunciated American English isn't out of place, especially when Massachusetts-based Gloriae Dei Cantores sing a work written for Washington National Cathedral - a late and unfinished Te Deum, at that,...
In a work intended to console, it's important that the actual sound the choir makes is warmly consoling. It certainly is in this new Trinity College recording of Howells's 1932 Requiem: the tonal blend drawn from the choir by conductor Stephen Layton, suffused by the acoustic of the Lady Chapel in Ely Cathedral, is glowing, and makes the opening 'Salvator mundi' a spiritually palliative...
The Choir of Trinity College, a group going back to the 14th century, brings a luminous, beautifully balanced sound to a range of music by Herbert Howells (1892-1983). The dynamics are carefully sculpted. Crescendos and even decrescendos thrill. This is approachable music - I picture it like a bright painting, with primary colours. Everyone will have their favorite parts. I love the dreamy fading...
My Best Choral CD is from Hyperion and showcases music by the still underrated Herbert howells. Stephen Layton and his Trinity College Choir, Cambridge do wonders with Howells brief but eloquent Requiem, the Hymn to St Cecilia and one of our finest hymn tunes composed for All My Hope on God is Founded and dedicated to his son who died very young.
Reviewed by David MellorThe Mail on Sunday