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Howells: Stabat Mater
Benjamin Hulett (tenor), Alison Hill (soprano)
The Bach Choir & Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, David Hill
Awards:
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Gramophone Magazine, November 2014, Editor's Choice
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2014
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Gramophone Awards, 2015, Finalist - Choral
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...
Howells: Stabat Mater
Benjamin Hulett (tenor), Alison Hill (soprano)
The Bach Choir & Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, David Hill
Purchase product
Awards:
-
Gramophone Magazine, November 2014, Editor's Choice
-
Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2014
-
Gramophone Awards, 2015, Finalist - Choral
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...
About
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.
Contents and tracklist
Awards and reviews
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Gramophone MagazineNovember 2014Editor's Choice
-
Presto Recordings of the YearFinalist 2014
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.
