Holst: The Cloud Messenger; The Hymn of Jesus; Seven Part-Songs; A Choral Fantasia; Ode to Death, The Evening Watch

This is the recording of Holst’s masterpiece The Hymn of Jesus with its ecstatic, jubilant dance rhythms and bold dissonances. The choral singing is superb. The Cloud Messenger (taking a message of love across India to the Himalayas), maybe uneven but it is glorious at its best, like the sparkling approach to the mountains, and the oriental dance climax. Holst’s astringent but powerful Choral Fantasia with its striking organ and brass writing is a setting of Bridges’s Ode to Music. Seven Part Songs for soprano, female voices and strings have a cool, ethereal beauty. A generous bargain for the adventurous. Ian Lace