Composer: Gustav Theodore Holst
Performer: David Theodore, Robert Truman, Sioned Williams, Holst Singers
Conductor: Stephen Layton
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Hyperion
Catalogue: 4880599
Release: 1994
Size: 234 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
01. Ave Maria, H49, Op. 9b
02. Of one that is so fair and bright, H130, Op. 34 No. 3
Carols, H91
03. A Welcome Song
04. Jesu, thou the Virgin-born
Carols, H91
05. Terly, Terlow
06. Lullay my liking, H129, Op. 34 No. 2
07. Bring us in good ale
08. Diverus and Lazarus
09. This have I done for my true love, H128, Op. 34 No. 1
Songs from The Princess, Op. 20a, H80
10. I. Sweet and Low
11. II. The Splendour Falls
12. III. Tears, Idle Tears
13. IV. O Swallow, Swallow
14. V. Home They Brought Her Warrior Dead
15. VI. Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal
16. O spiritual pilgrim, H188
Welsh Folk Songs, H. 183
17. My Sweetheart’s Like Venus (Mae ‘nghariad I’n Fenws)
Eastern Pictures, H112
18. I. Spring
19. II. Summer
20. Light leaves whisper, H20
21. In youth is pleasure, H76
Choral Folksongs, Op. 36b, H136
22. IV. The Song of the Blacksmith
23. I. I Sow’d the Seeds of Love
24. V. I Love My Love
25. III. Matthew, Mark and Luke and John
26. II. There Was a Tree
27. VI. Swansea Town
Most of this disc is for fans of Holst only — after all, how many almost unaccompanied part songs can any human being stand? — but on at least one song, this disc is for every spiritual human being on the planet. O Spiritual Pilgrim, Holst’s setting of six lines from the “Fourth Song of The Gates of Damascus,” was one of his last works and its purity is as sublime as its text. While anyone but a Holst fan will lose interest in this disc before the Choral Folk Songs (6) at its end — after all, how many superbly sung and lovingly performed part songs can any human being stand? — anyone with an immortal soul should hear O Spiritual Pilgrim. There have been very few recordings of the part songs of Holst and none that can equal this 1993 recording by the Holst Singers directed by Stephen Layton. Whether it’s the early Ave Maria, the evocative Two Eastern Pictures, the quaint This Have I Done for My True Love, or the transcendent O Spiritual Pilgrim, Layton and the Singers are equal to the music. And being equal to the music that sets the text that closes O Spiritual Pilgrim is as much as one can ask of any human being: “And God shall make thy body pure, and give thee knowledge to endure this ghost-life’s piercing phantom-pain, and bring thee to life again.” Hyperion’s sound is warm and a little too close.