Howells: Stabat Mater

Though there is much emotional turbulence in this music, Hill maintains a compelling life and forward momentum in Howells's immensely contrapuntal score...The Bach Choir has a palpable vibrancy... — Gramophone Magazine, November 2014 More…

Release Date: 1st Sep 2014
Catalogue No: 8573176
Label: Naxos
Length: 70 minutes

Gramophone Magazine

November 2014

Editor's Choice
Presto Recordings of the Year

Finalist 2014
Gramophone Awards

2015

Finalist - Choral

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Howells: Stabat Mater

48:42

$11.00

$13.20

$19.25

Benjamin Hulett (tenor)
Bach Choir, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
David Hill
Recorded: 30 November - 1 December 2013
Recording Venue: Lighthouse, Poole, Dorset, UK

Stabat mater dolorosa

7:32

$2.00

$2.40

$3.50

Cujus animam gementem

7:57

$2.00

$2.40

$3.50

Quis est homo?

4:40

$1.00

$1.20

$1.75

Eia, mater

4:53

$1.00

$1.20

$1.75

Sancta mater

5:45

$1.00

$1.20

$1.75

Fac ut portem

6:33

$1.00

$1.20

$1.75

Christe, cum sit hunc exire

11:22

$3.00

$3.60

$5.25

Howells: Te Deum & Jubilate 'Collegium Regale'

9:01

$2.00

$2.40

$3.50

Bach Choir, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
David Hill
Recorded: 30 November - 1 December 2013
Recording Venue: Lighthouse, Poole, Dorset, UK

Howells: Sine Nomine, Op. 37

12:32

$3.00

$3.60

$5.25

Alison Hill (soprano), Benjamin Hulett (tenor)
Bach Choir, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
David Hill
Recorded: 30 November - 1 December 2013
Recording Venue: Lighthouse, Poole, Dorset, UK

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The three works on this recording mark staging posts in Herbert Howells’s compositional life. Sine nomine was commissioned at Elgar’s instigation when Howells was 30 and is predominantly orchestral, with wordless parts for the two vocal soloists. This arch-like ‘spiritual meditation’ was his first extended work for larger forces. Like the Hymnus paradisi (Naxos 8570352), the Stabat Mater is a direct musical reponse to the death of the composer’s nine year-old son, and further reveals his mastery of choral and orchestral polyphony. The Te Deum signalled a fresh and new approach to settings of Anglican canticles.

Reviews

November 2014

Though there is much emotional turbulence in this music, Hill maintains a compelling life and forward momentum in Howells's immensely contrapuntal score...The Bach Choir has a palpable vibrancy in its range and layers of dynamics which are complemented by the extensive and highly sensitive palette of Howells's orchestra...and the incisive solo tenor role of Benjamin Hulett.

December 2014

The choral singing is superb...Hulett is quite wonderful to hear: lyrical, natural, unforced, never strained as he rises affectingly above the orchestra...the whole team of singers and instrumentalists respond with the utmost fervour. to Hill's evidently inspiring leadership. This is a triumph for all concerned.

November 2014

This is a mandatory purchase for all who love the music of Herbert Howells and even if you have the Rozhdestvensky recording of Stabat Mater you won’t regret the duplication.

Classical Music

He wrote [the Stabat Mater] for the Bach Choir, and their descendants respond thrillingly to every facet, its bleak anguish and its grave beauty. Hill paces superbly, and Hulett is utterly convincing in taxing solo passages.

Howells: Stabat Mater

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