Celebrating its 30th release on Hyperion, The Choir of Trinity College Cambridge dedicates its latest project to secular choral music by Gerald Finzi. This, the debut release for Trinity’s newly appointed Director of Music Steven Grahl, presents three of Finzi’s larger choral works in first recordings of these arrangements.

Written during the 1930s and ’40s, this music dwells on the transience of mortal life and human happiness through Finzi’s unique compositional voice: a mix of outwardly festive works (For St Cecilia) and darker, more introspective music (Requiem da camera). Each of these major works is newly published in arrangements for choir and organ, enabling future performance opportunities for a wider range of ensembles.

‘For St Cecilia’ was scored originally for solo tenor, chorus and full orchestra, but appears here with the orchestral parts arranged for organ by Robert Gower. Gower has also re-arranged Finzi’s orchestral parts for organ in the Christmas work ‘In terra pax’, which takes inspiration from the composer’s time on the picturesque Cotswolds landmark Chosen Hill. Finally, the orchestration of the introspective ‘Requiem da camera’ was left unfinished at the time of Finzi’s death; a 2013 completion by Christian Alexander has here been combined with Francis Jackson’s earlier organ transcription to create a fresh arrangement.

Award-winning soloists Hilary Cronin, Gwilym Bowen and Florian Störtz join the forces of the Trinity Cambridge Choir, whose last all-Finzi album (CDA68222, 2019) was praised by Gramophone as ‘a beautifully crafted disc’ with ‘Trinity at their absolute best’.