COMPOSERS: Dyson
LABELS: Hyperion Helios
WORKS: Hierusalem; Three Choral Hymns; Three Songs of Praise; O Praise God in His Holiness; Fantasia and Ground Bass
PERFORMER: Valery Hill (soprano), Thomas Trotter (organ); St Michael’s Singers, RPO/Jonathan Rennert (organ)
CATALOGUE NO: CDH 55046 Reissue (1983, 1984)
George Dyson had a longer creative reach than you could necessarily tell from anything on this disc, but it’s still a useful collection of odds and ends. The ardent choral hymns, and the substantial and inventive Fantasia and Ground Bass for organ are attractive, workmanlike additions to the English church music tradition. The late cantata Hierusalem, though still tailored for church performers, is something more personal: modestly mystical in the manner of VW and Howells, it achieves a penumbra of spiritual radiance yet is overwhelmingly lyrical in effect. The Hyperion recording, nicely spacious in capturing the widely separated forces of the cantata, still sounds first-rate 17 years after its first release. Calum MacDonald
Dyson: Hierusalem; Three Choral Hymns; Three Songs of Praise; O Praise God in His Holiness; Fantasia and Ground Bass
George Dyson had a longer creative reach than you could necessarily tell from anything on this disc, but it’s still a useful collection of odds and ends. The ardent choral hymns, and the substantial and inventive Fantasia and Ground Bass for organ are attractive, workmanlike additions to the English church music tradition. The late cantata Hierusalem, though still tailored for church performers, is something more personal: modestly mystical in the manner of VW and Howells, it achieves a penumbra of spiritual radiance yet is overwhelmingly lyrical in effect.
Our rating
4
Published: January 20, 2012 at 1:16 pm