Precious Things: Choral Music by Bernard Hughes - CD Booklet

PRECIOUS THINGS: CHORAL MUSIC BY BERNARD HUGHES (b. 1974) THE EPIPHONI CONSORT

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TIM READER

1

Perhaps

[3:37]

2

Psalm 56

[3:50]

Precious Things 3 4 5

Two 16 17

1. All the gold in the world

[2:42] 2. Helium

[2:31] 3. Crude

[2:07]

18

Songs of Spring

1. Spring, the sweete spring

2. It was a lover and his lasse

Jesus, Springing

Milly Pelmore soprano; Jess Haig, Abaigh Wheatley altos; Greg Windle, Christopher Pelmore tenors; Amatey Doku bass

The Linden Tree

[3:14]

7

The Singers

[3:30]

20

8

If we shadows have offended

[1:41]

21

9

Jubilate Domino

[2:56]

22

Seek the peace of the city

23

Vocalise

I

Sing of Love 10 1. Meditation I 11 2. ‘Rise up, my love, my fair one’ 12 3. Meditation II 13 4. ‘Through love’ 14 5. Meditation III

15 6. ‘Love is patient, love is kind’

Becky Ryland-Jones soprano

[1:55] [3:29] [1:43] [3:41] [1:52] [4:04]

[4:14]

A Ternary of Littles

6

[2:25] [2:13]

19

1. I saw a Peacock, with a fiery tail 2. A Ternary of Littles, upon a Pipkin of Jelly Sent to a Lady 3. A New Song

Total playing time

[2:29] [3:23] [2:06] [4:33] [4:18] [68:47]

All tracks except 10–15 are premiere recordings

The Epiphoni Consort acknowledge the ongoing support of their Benefactors and Friends Recorded on 3-5 September 2021 in All Hallows’, Gospel Oak Producer/Engineer: Paul Baxter 24-bit digital editing: James Waterhouse 24-bit digital mastering: Paul Baxter

Design: Drew Padrutt Booklet editor: Henry Howard Cover art: FLY:D/unsplash Session photography: Ben Tomlin Delphian Records Ltd – Edinburgh – UK www.delphianrecords.com

@ delphianrecords @ delphianrecords @ delphian_records

Notes on the music Bernard Hughes’s lucid, ‘useful’ music almost always tells stories – whether in concert, in the theatre, on film, in sacred ritual or preserved on record. It is often written to serve a specific purpose, to fill a particular space or to unite performers of varied disciplines. ‘Having a particular occasion in mind can really help shape a piece,’ commented the composer recently, who started his career as a comedian and continues to augment his composing by writing words. He counts Igor Stravinsky as one of his major influences, in discipline of approach rather than style; Hughes’s musical language can change entirely depending on the work in hand. ‘Writing a piece is finding a solution to a problem,’ he has said; ‘when the initial restrictions vary, so does the end result.’

the choir of St Paul’s Girls’ School in Hammersmith, where he is composer-inresidence (the school’s sometime director of music was Gustav Holst). A straightforward but steadily augmenting tune carries a poem

by Vera Brittain that laments the early death of her beloved in the First World War, its grief lined with optimism at the last. The setting was originally scored for the upper voices of the St Paul’s choir, but was later arranged for SATB choir. It is retrospectively dedicated to Tom Hammond, the conductor and friend of the composer who died suddenly over Christmas 2021.

Hughes enjoys a particularly close relationship with the BBC Singers, which drew him into writing for grouped voices after a workshop at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival in 2002. Back then, the ensemble reportedly enjoyed what Hughes wrote for it: music that rejoiced in the expressive power of the singing voice without need for extended techniques, and that took a sideways look at tonality despite its firm harmonic footing. In that sense, Hughes’s musical worldview has remained constant. Much of the music on this album was written for the BBC Singers.

Hughes is drawn to poetic texts and never allows his music to trample on them; in a good performance, the words in his music are always decipherable. In his settings of Psalm 56 and Jubilate Domino (both from 2016), the sacred texts are selectively edited.

In the former, Hughes has ‘stripped out all the direct references to God, leaving a slightly confrontational and aggressive text which dissolves into piety only in the last few bars’.

The largely homophonic texture, cumulatively augmented, propels that text as if the music isn’t there at all. The text of Jubilate Domino is not redacted but rather augmented, supercharged by Gerard Manley Hopkins’s exuberant professions of faith.

Perhaps, however, was written for another institution with which Hughes is associated:

In Precious Things, first performed by the BBC Singers in 2020, Hughes sets verse

by poets he knows personally and has felt himself aesthetically close to (the composer was at university with Antony Dunn and Andrew George). These pieces are unusually political in the context of the rest of his output. The innocent, childlike word-painting of the lighter-than-air ‘Helium’ is obvious enough.

There is something unsettlingly luxuriant and even blingy about ‘All the gold in the world,’ while ‘Crude’ gets stuck in to the sickly mess of human greed and environmental damage.

The Linden Tree is one of two carols included on this album, another homophonic work that makes no attempt to reinvent the harmonic wheel but whose harmonies glow nonetheless.

Jesus, Springing (2014) sets a joyous expression of faith by Kevin Crossley-Holland, dancing through a compound time signature.

With similar spirit, celebrating not faith through singing but simply singing itself, The Singers sets a text by Henry Longfellow and uses the characteristic Hughes device of having the two halves of the choir sing the same material but from a staggered start. Puck’s final words from Shakespeare’s play are given a reflective, inviting homophonic treatment in If we shadows have offended from Four Songs from A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

I Sing of Love was written for the American choir Seattle Pro Musica, and first performed by that ensemble in 2012. It uses three texts from different religious traditions: the Old

Testament Song of Solomon; a devotional poem by the Islamic mystic Rumi and verses from the First Letter to the Corinthians in the New Testament, divided by three ‘Meditations’ which reflect solely on the words ‘I sing of love’, lending them the power of a mantra.

That phrase is repeated with increasing intensity in the first Meditation, which layers up statements of the phrase from the alto register outwards. The Song of Solomon passage is shapely and sensual, prompting a Meditation of greater frisson that splits the choir in two.

The Rumi text ‘Through love’ undulates and soars towards a rippling intensity. The third Meditation sounds less at ease, with sustained cluster chords in upper voices set against chanted phrases in lower ones. The setting of Corinthians is an exploration of harmony in the form of a slow-moving chorale, solidified by parallel harmonies and ultimately adorned by a solo soprano.

Two Songs of Spring, first performed in 2018, were written for the upper voice of the choir of St Paul’s Girls’ School choir. They set texts by Thomas Nashe and his contemporary Shakespeare respectively; Nashe’s text Spring, the sweete spring bounces along before dissolving into an enchanting mist of ad libitum nature noises; the three verses of Shakespeare’s It was a lover and his lasse are carried by individual voice sections which

Notes on the music are each united for the chorus; at one point, homophony reminiscent of a part-song sprouts into intriguing polyphony, as the three solo verses are piled on top of each other.

A Ternary of Littles was written for the BBC Singers, who performed it for the first time in 2020. Hughes set out to write three ‘monolithic’ movements, each with a distinct and separate texture in mind: the first concerns imitative polyphony; the second homophony dominated by melody; the third strong, block chords. They can be sung by a six-part choir or, as here, by an ensemble of six voices.

Each of the poems set uses the device of anaphora – their verses beginning with the same phrase. The first, the anonymous I saw a Peacock, with a fiery tail adds to that a trick device whereby the apparent fantasies of each line are rationalised by the first portion of the next (again, in this piece we hear Hughes ‘staggering’ his choir as the top half of the ensemble leads the bottom half, in this case by a crotchet). A Ternary of Littles, upon a Pipkin of Jelly Sent to a Lady sets a poem

by Robert Herrick admired by Hughes for its ‘deadpan flirtatiousness’, the music toying with the absurd. A New Song sets a visceral text by Michael Symmons Roberts that induces music of exuberance and compulsion.

The mood changes for the album’s last two works. Seek the peace of the city was written in 2019 for the London Festival of Contemporary Church Music, based at St Pancras New Church, an island of calm amid the frenetic din of central London. The music’s repeating shapes, solid foundations and gently polyphonic weave create a haven, reflecting the words from the Book of Jeremiah. Vocalise, written for this recording, looks beyond text altogether. It is an aleatoric setting of vowel sounds in which gradual harmonic shifts are enacted by the independent decisions of the singing musicians. In direct contrast to the sure, clear harmonies that have gone before it, here harmonies and vowels coalesce and mutate as a vaporous cloud of human voices. © 2022 Andrew Mellor Andrew Mellor is a critic for Gramophone and the Financial Times and a Consultant Editor at Opera Now. His book on Nordic cultures, The Northern Silence, is published by Yale University Press.

Texts and translations 1

Perhaps

2

Psalm 56

Perhaps some day the sun will shine again, And I shall see that still the skies are blue, And feel once more I do not live in vain, Although bereft of you.

Mine enemies would daily swallow me up: For they be many that fight against me, O Thou most High.

Be merciful unto me, O Thou most High.

Every day they wrest my words: Perhaps the golden meadows at my feet All their thoughts are against me for evil.

Will make the sunny hours of Spring seem gay.

Be merciful unto me, O Thou most High.

And I shall find the white May blossoms sweet, What time I am afraid I will trust in Thee.

Though you have passed away.

They gather themselves together, Perhaps the summer woods will shimmer bright, They hide themselves, they mark my steps, And crimson roses once again be fair, When they wait for my soul.

And autumn harvest fields a rich delight, Quia est salvus Although you are not there.

Shall they escape by iniquity?

Be merciful unto me O Thou most High: Perhaps someday I shall not shrink in pain For man would swallow me up; To see the passing of the dying year, He fighting daily oppresseth me.

And listen to the Christmas songs again, (To the chief Musician upon Jonathelem-rechokim, Although you cannot hear.

Michtam of David, when the Philistines took him But though kind Time may many joys renew, in Gath.)

There is one greatest joy I shall not know Thou tellest my wanderings, Again, because my heart for loss of you, (miserere) Was broken, long ago.

Put Thou my tears into Thy bottle: are they not in Thy book?

Vera Brittain (1893–1970), ‘Perhaps –’, © Mark Bostridge (miserere mei) and T J Brittain-Catlin, Literary Executors of the Estate of For Thou hast delivered my soul from death: Vera Brittain, by kind permission of the Trustees of the wilt Thou not deliver my feet from falling?

Estate of Vera Brittain Miserere mei quoniam conculcavit me homo: Tota die pugnans tribulavit me.

Miserere mei.

Psalm 56 (KJV), abridged and reordered; Psalm 55: 2 (Vulgate)

Precious Things 3

1. All the gold in the world Gold! All the gold in the world, gold, all the gold, all the gold in the world.

Gather all the gold in the world – square it all into place, each face so bright, so light, so soft, so cold.

It means no vote, no choice, no race.

Gold! All the gold in the world, gold, all the gold, all the gold in the world.

How bright, how light, how soft, how warm.

Name it, call it the president.

It means no harm, it means no harm, no harm to you or your children.

How kind it is, in fire refined how good our gold, our world, our kind.

Antony Dunn (b. 1973), reproduced with permission

4

2. Helium Up. Up. Up. Lighter than air.

Where? There.

Up there. Up. Up. Lighter than air.

Flying high. Flying –

Skyward. Sky high.

Lighter than air.

Where?

M.R.I., scan, cranial map; calibrate, magnetic field.

Helium needed, feed the machine. Superfluid.

Supercool.

Reactor. Rocket. Baby breathing. Always needing.

Leaking, leaving.

Mined. Used. Party balloon. Squeaking, giggling.

Leaking, leaving.

Leaving our atmosphere. Leaving.

Up. Up. Up.

Gone.

Helen Eastman (b. 1978); words © the author, reproduced by permission

Texts and translations 5

3. Crude

In Nazareth a maid to greet, blest O’er all other mortals.

We soared over a sign.

It said ‘no turning back’.

Our feathers grew heavy.

Our beaks all turned black.

Beneath us, the skin Of the planet is cracked.

This earth is exhausted.

We still want to frack.

‘Hail Mary!’ quoth that angel mild, ‘Of womankind the fairest: The Virgin ay shalt though be styled, A babe although though bearest.’

Andrew George (b. 1973); words © the author, reproduced by permission

6

The Linden Tree There stood in heav’n a linden tree, But though ’twas honey laden.

All angels cried ‘No bloom shall be Like that of one fair maiden.’

Sped Gabriel on wingéd feet, And passed through bolted portals.

But the great Master said, ‘I see No best in kind, but in degree; I gave a various gift to each, To charm, to strengthen, and to teach.

This tiding filled his mates with glee: ‘Twas passed from one to other, That ’twas Mary, and none but she, And God would call her Mother.

‘These are the three great chords of might, And he whose ear is tuned aright Will hear no discord in the three, But the most perfect harmony.’

George Ratcliffe Woodward (1848–1934)

7

The Singers God sent His singers upon earth, With song of laughter and of mirth, That they might touch the hearts of men, And bring them back to heaven again.

The first, a youth, with soul of fire, Held in his hand a golden lyre; Through groves he wandered, and by streams, Playing the music of our dreams.

The second, with a bearded face, Stood singing in the market-place, And stirred with accents deep and loud The hearts of all the listening crowd.

We will make amends ere long; Else the Puck a liar call; So, good night unto you all.

Give me your hands, if we be friends, And Robin shall restore amends.

And those who heard the Singers three Disputed which the best might be; For still their music seemed to start Discordant echoes in each heart,

‘So be it!’ God’s hand maiden cried, ‘According to thy telling.’

Whereon the angel sweetly hied up Homeward to his dwelling.

Dark and heavy and under the soil, Starting to bubble, ready to boil, Sweet as candy covered in foil, Waters are troubled – we have found oil.

The grass in those gardens Used to be lush The leather in our private Planes is still plush.

Tell us how little time’s left, We will blush Show us the burning black fountain, We’ll gush.

A gray old man, the third and last, Sang in cathedrals dim and vast, While the majestic organ rolled Contrition from its mouths of gold.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882)

8

If we shadows have offended If we shadows have offended, Think but this and all is mended, That you have but slumbered here While these visions did appear.

And this weak and idle theme, No more yielding but a dream, Gentles, do not reprehend: If you pardon, we will mend: And, as I am an honest Puck, If we have unearned luck Now to ’scape the serpent’s tongue,

William Shakespeare (1564–1616), A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act V, Scene i

9

Jubilate Domino Jubilate Domino omnis terra.

Servite Domino in laetitia: ingredimini coram eo in laude.

Ingredimini portas eius in gratiarum actione: atria eius in laude.

Confitemini ei: benedicite nomini eius.

Psalm 100 (Vulgate Psalm 99)

Praise the Lord, the whole earth.

Serve the Lord in gladness: enter his presence in praise.

Enter his gates in thanksgiving: his courts in praise.

Confess him: bless his name.

Repeat that, repeat, Cuckoo, bird, and open ear wells, heart-springs, delightfully sweet, With a ballad, with a ballad, a rebound Off trundled timber and scoops of the hillside ground: The whole landscape flushes on a sudden at a sound.

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–1889)

Texts and translations I Sing of Love 10

Through love vinegar becomes sweet wine.

Through love a post becomes a throne.

Through love a reversal seems as good fortune.

Through love a prison becomes a rose garden.

Through love a grate full of ashes seems a garden.

Through love fire turns to light.

Through love the devil becomes an angel.

Through love hard stones become soft as butter.

Through love wax becomes hard as iron.

Through love grief is as joy.

Through love the follower becomes a leader.

Through love stings are as honey.

Through love a lion is harmless as a mouse.

Through love sickness is health.

Through love a curse becomes a blessing.

Through love the dead man comes alive.

Through love the king becomes a slave.

1. Meditation I I sing of love …

11

2. ‘Rise up, my love, my fair one’ My beloved spake and said unto me: Rise up my love, my fair one, and come away.

For lo, the winter is past, The rain is over and gone.

The flowers appear on the earth, The time of the singing of birds is come And the voice of the turtle is heard in our land.

Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.

The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, And the vines with the tender grape give a good smell.

Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.

It always protects, always trusts, Always hopes, always perseveres.

1 Corinthians 13: 4–7 (KJV)

Two Songs of Spring 16

Jalal ud-Din Rumi (1207–1273)

Song of Solomon 2: 10–13 turtle – turtle dove

14

5. Meditation III I sing of love….

12

3. Meditation II I sing of love….

13

4. ‘Through love’ Through love bitter things seem sweet.

Through love copper becomes gold.

Through love dregs taste like pure wine.

Through love pain is as a balm.

Through love thorns become the rose.

6. ‘Love is patient, love is kind’ Love is patient, love is kind.

It does not envy, does not boast, It is not proud. It is not rude, It is not self-seeking, It is not easily angered, It keeps no record of wrongs.

Love does not delight in evil But rejoices with the truth.

17

And therefore take the present time, With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino, For love is crowned with the prime, In the spring time …

1. Spring, the sweete spring Spring, the sweete spring, is the yeres pleasant King William Shakespeare, As You Like It, Act V, Scene iii Then bloome eche thing, then maydes daunce in a ring, Cold doeth not sting, the pretty birds doe sing, 18 Jesus, Springing Cuckow, jugge, jugge, pu we, to witta woo.

I am the heart that houses the cone The Palme and May make country houses gay, I am the cone enclosing the cedar Lambs friske and play, the Shepherds pype all day, I am the cedar sawn for the cradle And we heare aye birds tune this merry lay, forest of the body Cuckow, jugge, jugge, pu we, to witta woo. body of the tree The fields breathe sweete, the dayzies kisse our I am the cradle rocking the baby feete, I am the baby containing the man Young lovers meete, old wives a sunning sit; I am the man nailed on the cross In every streete, these tunes our eares doe greete, Cuckow, jugge, jugge, pu we, to witta woo. tree of the body Thomas Nashe (1567–1601)

15

Betweene the acres of the Rye, With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino, These pretty Country folks would lie, In the spring time …

2. It was a lover and his lasse It was a lover and his lasse, With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino, That o’re the greene corne field did passe, In the spring time, the only pretty ring time, When Birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding.

Sweet Lovers love the spring.

body of the forest I am the cross sawn from the cedar I am the cedar enclosed in the cone I am the cone housed in the heart here in my heart Jesus, springing Kevin Crossley-Holland (b. 1941), from Selected Poems (Enitharmon Press, 2001), by permission

Texts and translations A Ternary of Littles

A little stream best fits a little boat, A little lead best fits a little float: As my small pipe best fits my little note.

1. I saw a Peacock, with a fiery tail I saw a Peacock, with a fiery tail, I saw a Blazing Comet, drop down hail, I saw a Cloud, with Ivy circled round, I saw a sturdy Oak, creep on the ground, I saw a Pismire, swallow up a Whale, I saw a raging Sea, brim full of Ale, I saw a Venice Glass, Sixteen foot deep, I saw a well, full of mens tears that weep, I saw their eyes, all in a flame of fire, I saw a House, as big as the Moon and higher, I saw the Sun, even in the midst of night, I saw the man that saw this wondrous sight.

Anon., seventeenth century

20 2. A Ternary of Littles, upon a Pipkin of Jelly Sent to a Lady

A little saint best fits a little shrine, A little prop best fits a little vine: As my small cruse best fits my little wine.

A little seed best fits a little soil, A little trade best fits a little toil: As my small jar best fits my little oil.

A little bin best fits a little bread, A little garland fits a little head: As my small stuff best fits my little shed.

A little hearth best fits a little fire, A little chapel fits a little choir: As my small bell best fits my little spire.

A little meat best fits a little belly, As sweetly, lady, give me leave to tell ye, This little pipkin fits this little jelly.

22

Seek the peace of the city Seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the LORD for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace.

Robert Herrick (1591–1674) Jeremiah 29: 7 21

3. A New Song Sing a new song to the Lord, sing through the skin of your teeth, sing in the code of your blood, sing with a throat full of earth, sing to the quick of your nails, sing from the knots of your lungs, sing like a dancer on coals, sing as a madman in tongues, sing as if singing made sense, sing in the caves of your heart, sing like you want them to dance, sing through the shades of your past, sing what you never could say, sing at the fulcrum of joy sing without need of reply.

Michael Symmons Roberts (b. 1963), from Drysalter, with the permission of Michael Symmons Roberts and United Agents LLP. Copyright © 2013 Michael Symmons Roberts

Bernard Hughes: photo Sarah-Jane Field

19

Biographies The Epiphoni Consort was founded in 2014

by Tim Reader to fill a gap between the amateur and professional tiers of London’s choral circuit. Its members comprise a flexible number of people who sing to a professional standard but have other full-time careers.

The group has won awards in Tenebrae’s Locus Iste Competition and in the London International A Cappella Choir Competition, and has appeared on television on the BBC4 documentary The Joy of Rachmaninov and the BBC2 documentary Terry Pratchett: Back in Black, singing Tallis’s 40-part motet Spem in alium. The choir’s debut recording, Sudden Light, of music by David Bednall, was released on Delphian Records (DCD34189) in 2017; this was followed in 2020 (DCD34239)

by When Love Speaks: Choral Music by Owain Park. These recordings garnered critical acclaim from Gramophone, Choir and Organ, BBC Radio 3 and BBC Music Magazine.

Recent performances have included Bach’s Mass in B minor and Singet dem Herrn with City of London Sinfonia and John Butt, a concert performance of Ravel’s ballet Daphnis et Chloé with Kensington Symphony Orchestra, the closing gala concert of the London Festival of Contemporary Church Music in 2019 with an all-Jonathan Dove programme to celebrate the composer’s 60th birthday year, and concert performances of Durufle’s Requiem with Echo Ensemble and Noah Max, and the complete Rachmaninov All Night Vigil in 2021.

The Epiphoni Consort Tim Reader, The Epiphoni Consort’s Artistic Director, studied singing, accompanying and conducting at the University of Exeter, graduating in 2000. In 2019 he graduated with a Postgraduate Diploma in Music from the University of York where he studied Solo Voice Ensemble Singing under Robert Hollingworth.

Tim now juggles dual careers, one as a digital consultant for charities and arts organisations, and the other as a singer and choral director in London, including as a regular of the choir at St John’s Wood Church. He has conducted Epiphoni in performances at Westminster Abbey, St Martin-in-the-Fields, St Paul’s Cathedral, Southwark Cathedral, The Barbican Centre, Queen Elizabeth Hall, St John’s Smith Square, and for BBC radio and television.

Sopranos Sapphire Armitage Emily Benson Ailsa Campbell Annie Hamilton Milly Pelmore Helen Price Becky Ryland-Jones Charlotte Webb Altos Rosie Breckon Rose Dixon Jess Haig Helen Roberts Sarah Shipton Abaigh Wheatley Tenors Edgar Chan Richard Holdsworth Andrew Milner-White Christopher Pelmore Alister Whitford Greg Windle Basses Charles Blamire-Brown Nick Daly Amatey Doku Julius Haswell Adam Jones Graham Kirk Morgan Simes

David Bednall: Sudden Light (choral works) The Epiphoni Consort / Tim Reader; Stephen Farr organ DCD34189

There is something in the music of David Bednall that speaks of the English genius; it is present in his harmonic language, in its extended diatonic chords and shimmering polytonal beauty, and there too in the folklike melodies of many of the works on this recording. A disciple of Vaughan Williams, Finzi or Howells? Yet his music also harbours traces of Messiaen, Duruflé and Vierne.

The Epiphoni Consort and their director Tim Reader are passionate advocates, and this enterprising debut recording – opening with the ravishing depiction of luminosity that is Bednall’s 40-part motet Lux orta est iusto – serves to highlight why he is well on his way to becoming one of the UK’s best-loved living choral composers.

PRESTO Editor’s Choice

Edward Nesbit: Sacred Choral Music The Choir of King’s College London, Ruby Hughes soprano, Joshua Simões organ; Joseph Fort director DCD34256

As a young composer, Edward Nesbit was drawn to the rich complexities of contemporary instrumental music; little more than a decade later, he has found himself returning to the inheritance of his early youth as a chorister: the texts of mass, psalms and canticles, and the long centuries of the Anglican choral tradition. Not that there is anything traditional about Nesbit’s music, which synthesises these two heritages into a soundworld that is accessible, full of references yet always recognisably its own voice. Joseph Fort – his colleague at King’s College London – and organist Joshua Simões and the King’s choir rise to the challenges expertly, while multi-awardwinning soprano Ruby Hughes gives the lead in the clarion textures of Nesbit’s Mass.

‘fresh, enthusiastic performances’ — BBC Music Magazine, November 2017

New in March 2022

When Love Speaks: choral music by Owain Park The Epiphoni Consort / Tim Reader

Judith Weir: Choral Music Choir of Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge / Geoffrey Webber

DCD34239

DCD34095

The Epiphoni Consort follow up their acclaimed Delphian debut, of music by David Bednall, with a portrait album of another young choral composer on the ascendant. Still in his late twenties, Owain Park’s innate understanding of the choral medium is shown in the skilfully contrasted weights and colours of Shakespeare Songs of Night-Time, one of two Shakespeare cycles included here, and the Epiphoni singers make the most of the luxuriant chordal writing that characterises Park’s style as a whole – what his former teacher John Rutter has described as ‘towers of sound’. The choir is joined by a solo violin for the call-and-response patterns of Antiphon for the Angels, while Sing to me, windchimes movingly sets loss and yearning alongside poetic images of spring and rebirth.

This first recording devoted entirely to Judith Weir’s choral music comprises her complete works to date for unaccompanied choir or choir with one instrument (trombone and marimba as well as the more usual organ). Tracking her evolving relationship with the medium from her earliest liturgical commission to the most recent, premiered in 2009, it also includes several secular pieces and her two solo organ works, which are now established classics of the repertoire. The athleticism, intensity and clarity that mark out Geoffrey Webber’s choir are ideally suited to Weir’s strikingly original, approachable and fascinating music.

‘Owain Park has been uncommonly well served by Tim Reader and The Epiphoni Consort. The singing is consistently fine and impeccably disciplined … the sound is expertly focused and clear’ — MusicWeb International, July 2020

‘The freshness and precision of Weir’s writing is perfectly matched by the well tuned, clearly articulated singing’ — BBC Music Magazine, December 2011, CHORAL & SONG CHOICE

DCD34289