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
A moving performance from the college where Howells was wartime organist
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
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
The series should probe to be a timely enrichment of the Naxos catalogue and is off to an excellent start
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
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
The commitment, projection and natural energy of this choir have never failed to inspire me