Ian Venables: Requiem | Howells: Anthems for Choir & Orchestra
Conductor Benjamin Nicholas draws parallels between the familiar English choral sound of Howells and that of contemporary composer Ian Venables. Venables’ Requiem has already been warmly received by critics in a 2020 recording with just organ accompaniment. Now, Nicholas and his Merton College choir present it in an orchestrated version made specially for this recording.
The Howells items here are also premiere recordings: new instrumental accompaniments to two of his Four Anthems, in arrangements by Howells scholars Howard Eckdahl and Jonathan Clinch, illuminate and intensify his rich choral writing like back-lighting on a stained glass window, and they are complemented by the first recording of Howells’ original orchestration of The House of the Mind – a chance to hear one of his major underperformed works, introspective yet dramatic.
★★★★★ By turns moving and consoling to the living … Venables's Requiem here receives a superb rendition … ever responsive to the composer's emotional trajectory through the liturgical text … A thoroughly admirable release.
Choir & Organ, September 2022
RECOMMENDED Disarmingly lovely … The performances are absolutely first rate … [the choir's] finest achievement to date … outstanding in every respect.
