English Choral Music: Howells
Director of Music:
Christopher RobinsonOrgan Scholar:
Iain FarringtonRelease date:
September 1999Record label:
NaxosCatalogue number:
8.554659Awards:
Building a Library First Choice
BBC Music Magazine
November 2008
Track list
- Magnificat (St Paul's Service)
- Nunc dimittis (St Paul's Service)
- Like as the hart
- Paean for Organ
- Requiem
- Long, long ago
- Office of Holy Communion (Collegium Regale)
- Rhapsody No. 3 for Organ
- Take Him, Earth, For Cherishing
Reviews
★★★★★ A generous selection in seductive performances from the choir of St John's College, Cambridge... immaculate sound at once atmospheric and cleanly focused
Edward Greenfield, The Guardian (5th November 1999)
A moving performance from the college where Howells was wartime organist
Geraint Lewis, Gramophone (November 2015)
One of an outstanding series of later English choral music recordings from a great choir at the peak of its form. Also the most atmospheric and terrifying recording of Howells’s best Magnificat setting of them all
Sinfini Music (August 2014)
Naxos here offers a generous selection, in seductive performances from the Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge, that match and almost surpass any previous versions
Penguin Guide (January 2009)
The series should probe to be a timely enrichment of the Naxos catalogue and is off to an excellent start
John Steane, Gramophone (January 2000)
The St. Johns Choir has never sounded better, and the recorded sound is glorious: clear and clean, but with great warmth and a sense of space. The finely nuanced performances are impressively controlled. This disc is a must-have for connoisseurs of English cathedral music and a great introduction to Howells for the novice
American Record Guide (May 2000)
It culminates in Howells's 1963 spine-tingling tribute to President John F. Kennedy, 'Take Him, Earth, For Cherishing', sung here with an exquisite intimacy, rarely enjoyed outside of a live performance
Tarik O'Regan, The Observer (16th January 2000)
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The commitment, projection and natural energy of this choir have never failed to inspire me
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