Quiet and Contemplative - Review of Testament of Dr. Cranmer

My cd The Testament of Dr Cranmer has cropped up in the May round-up on MusicWeb International.

MUSICWEB DOWNLOAD ROUNDUP MAY 2010: (Discovery of the Month)
I came across Robert Hugill’s music by accident. It had been brought to my attention that I hadn’t included any Divine Art recordings in my Roundups for a long time, so I was browsing the Naxos Music Library to see and hear what was available. Having listened to the first work on this CD, I was sold. John Quinn called the central work sincere and dramatic – and I’m happy to endorse both that description and his reference to the performances of everything here as expert and committed. JQ’s only reservation was that there was, perhaps, a little too much of the serious side of Hugill’s music. I think I might prefer to describe most of it as quiet and contemplative rather than serious – just the thing for the end of a bad-hair day. I shan’t be listening to this as often as to the Chandos Howells CD (below), but I already knew that I loved Howells’ music.

It was The Testament of Dr Cranmer that first caught my attention – in the event, not the most striking work on the CD. Though I’m from the Catholic end of the Anglican spectrum, Cranmer is as much a hero figure for me as he is for the composer, not least for the wonderful prose which he bequeathed us until the modern shopping-basket language displaced it. Do try this in one form or another – buy the CD if you are unhappy about downloading. Subscribers to the Naxos Music Library can try it there.
Brian Wilson


Original can be found with several other Divine Art discs at
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2010/May10/May10_DL_Roundup.htm