David Hill reviews
Brahms: Ein deutsches Requiem
Natasha Schnur, Matt Sullivan; Yale Schola Cantorum; Meera Gudipati, Olav van Hezewijk, Graeme Steele Johnson, Julie Eskar, Ettore Causa, Ezra Seltzer, Luke Stence, Wei-Yi Wang/David Hill (Hyperion)
Howells: Missa Sabrinensis, etc
Various; The Bach Choir; BBC Concert Orchestra/David Hill (Hyperion)
New England Choirworks
Juilliard415; Elm City Girls’ Choir; Yale Schola Cantorum/David Hill (Hyperion)
The premier recording of Dyson's Choral Symphony
George Dyson wrote his Choral Symphonyin 1910, for his Oxford doctorate, but it gathered dust in the university’s Bodleian Library for the best part of a century until Dyson biographer Paul Spicer discovered it. This is the Symphony’s premiere recording.
Yale Schola Cantorum perform Fauré's Requiem
Another version of the Requiem? The instrumental accompaniment has been arranged here by David Hill for violin, cello, harp and organ. In principle, there is nothing to gainsay this, given that even the well-known version with full orchestra may not be by Fauré. In practice too, it works extremely well, with the two strings bringing out the subsidiary lines that were always a feature of his writing, while the harp adds just that touch of ethereality. The singing is splendid.