CD news

 

It is very exciting that three different discs including pieces of mine have been issued recently. My own disc, Quickening on Navona Records, is entirely devoted to my songs, Lux memoriaque on Nimbus Alliance contains my motet Populus Sion and four of my songs are included on Sappho, Shropshire and Super-tramp, the English Poetry and Song Society disc on Divine Art which comes out in January 2018. Further details of all three below.

Sappho, Shropshire and Super-tramp on Divine Art records, comes out in January 2018. A two disc set, it contains song cycles by Ivor Gurney, William Carnell, Michael Watts, and Denis Wickens, plus contemporary composers associated with the English Poetry and Song Society, all performed by Johnny Herford (baritone), Sarah Leonard (mezzo-soprano) and Nigel Foster (piano). The set includes four of my songs setting poems by Rabindranath Tagore, Hart Crane and Thomas Wyatt. Full details from the Divine Art website.

Populus Sion: Peter Leech and Harmonia Sacra's new disc from Nimbus Alliance, Lux memoriaque, is based around contemporary sacred music from Advent, much of it performed at the group's regular Advent Sunday concert at St Thomas the Martyr in Bristol. Amongst the works which the choir has performed over the years are a group of my Advent motets from Tempus per Annum, my cycle of 70 motets for the Church's year (all motets are available for free download on Cpdl.org).

Lux memoriaque includes one of these, Populus Sion, alongside music by Lawrence Whitehead, David Bednall, Jonathan Lee and Peter Leech. Full details from the Amazon website.

Quickening: Songs by Robert Hugill to English and Welsh Poets is the new CD of my songs on the Navona Records label.

• 'A disc worth hearing' - Classical Iconoclast
• 'His candid gift for gracious melody' - MusicWeb International
• 'performed with considerable sensitivity...Quickening is something different' - InfoDad

A talented group of young British artists, Anna Huntley (mezzo-soprano), Rosalind Ventris (viola), Johnny Herford (baritone) and William Vann (piano) have recorded a disc of my settings of poems by Rowan Williams, AE Housman, Ivor Gurney and Christina Rossetti. We are very pleased indeed that Dr Rowan Williams gave us permission to record my setting of his powerful poem 'Winterreise: for Gillian Rose, 9 December 1995'.

A sample track from the CD is available in the SoundCloud box to the right. Further details (including on-line sales) on the Quickening page.