Composer: Gustav Theodore Holst
Performer: Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, Katy Hill, Jonathan Beatty, Joshua Ryan, Eloise Irving, Matthew Long, Clara Kanter, Edward Hughes, Richard Horne, Angus McPhee
Conductor: William Vann
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Somm
Catalogue: SOMMCD279
Release: 2022
Size: 1.24 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
01. Nunc dimittis, H127
Songs of Praise (1931 Version)
02. No. 498, Gird on Thy Sword, H. 168 “Chilswell”
Two Psalms H117
03. Psalm 86 “To My Humble Supplication”
04. Psalm 148 “Lord, Who Hast Made Us for Thine Own”
4 Hymns for Songs of Praise, H. 161
05. No. 2, In This World, the Isle of Dreams “Brook End”
06. Not Unto Us, O Lord, H. 22
07. Our Blest Redeemer ‘Essex’
08. Short Festival Te Deum, H145
Hymns for the English Hymnal, H. 73
09. No. 2, From Glory to Glory Advancing “Sheen”
10. Man born to toil
11. Eternal Father, H. 169
The Coming of Christ
12. By Weary Stages the Old World Ages “Hill Crest”
13. Christ Hath a Garden, H 167
14. Ave Maria, H49, Op. 9b
15. I Vow to Thee, My Country
Festival Choruses, Op. 36a, H. 134
16. No. 3, A Festival Chime
17. All People That on Earth Do Dwell
3 Festival Choruses, Op. 36a, H. 134
18. No. 1, Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence
19. No. 2, Turn Back, O Man
A prolific composer best known for his orchestral spectacular The Planets, Holst was an expressive and sincere composer and arranger of religious music despite his professed agnosticism.
Included are his only setting of the Anglican Service for Evening Prayer, Nunc Dimittis, and his substantial Two Psalms and Four Festival Choruses, whose inspirations range from the Bible, Byzantine liturgy, 16th-century sources (not least Bach), and Welsh hymns. The 12 other featured songs see Holst setting an impressive array of centuries-spanning texts, and include the striking eight-part setting of Ave Maria for unaccompanied female voices, the ecstatic Not Unto Us, O Lord, premiered by the Royal Hospital Chelsea and William Vann in 2020, and the disc’s anthemic title song, its melody borrowed from The Planets’ Jupiter.
This album is sponsored by The Holst Society, who also commissioned four new arrangements making their debut on recording by Iain Farrington, and includes extensive, authoritative notes by Andrew Neill.