Herbert Howells - The Winchester Service & other late works (Andrew Lumsden)

Information

Composer: Herbert Howells

1. Jubilate Deo, for the Chapel Royal (St. Peter ad Vincula), H M Tower of London
2. Thee will I love
3. The Winchester Service: Magnificat
4. The Winchester Service: Nunc dimittis
5. Rhapsody No. 4
6. Come, my soul
7. Te Deum, for St. Mary Redcliffe, Bristol
8. Coventry Antiphon
9. A Flourish for a Bidding
10. Antiphon
11. The fear of the Lord
12. Exultate Deo

Simon Bell, organ
Winchester Cathedral Choir
Andrew Lumsden, conductor

Date: 2011
Label: Hyperion
https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_CDA67853

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Review

The beautiful and adventurous choral music of Herbert Howells

This is one of the most beautiful CDs of choral music you’re likely to hear. For listeners, it’s also one of the most demanding, due to the extreme complexity of the harmonic writing and the ultra-busy choral and organ textures. Lovers of Howells’s music will recognise his familiar compositional trademarks, but in the last 20 years of his life he became more adventurous with his ever-changing time signatures and colourful chord progressions – quite often it’s difficult to tell which key one is listening to. However, repeated hearings will gradually unravel the music’s many delights and there’s a pleasing variety in Howells’s choice of texts from the Bible (Old and New Testaments), plus poems by Robert Bridges, George Herbert and John Newton.

If the music is challenging to listeners, it presents choirs with a Herculean task. Fortunately, the magnificent Winchester Cathedral Choir gives performances of near-perfection that sound completely effortless. One notices the subtle variety of phrasing, ranging from seamless legato to punchy accents in irregular rhythms. There’s an ideal blend and balance between upper and lower voices, and the trebles have a warm, glowing brightness reminiscent of the choir of King’s College, Cambridge, in the 1960s. Andrew Lumsden chooses just the right tempi throughout the CD and Simon Bell provides impeccable accompaniments with intimate colouring. He also displays tremendous virtuosity in the two organ solos, although the smooth, distant sound of the cathedral’s Willis organ doesn’t quite do him or Howells justice. A fine recording and an excellent booklet help to make this a CD to treasure.

-- Christopher Nickol, Gramophone

More reviews:
BBC Music Magazine  PERFORMANCE: ***** / SOUND: *****
MusicWeb International  RECORDING OF THE MONTH
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/may/29/howells-winchester-service-review
https://www.limelightmagazine.com.au/reviews/howells-the-winchester-service-winchester-cathedral-choirlumsden/

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Herbert Howells (17 October 1892 – 23 February 1983) was an English composer, organist, and teacher. Howells studied at the Royal College of Music, where his teachers included Charles Villiers Stanford, Hubert Parry and Charles Wood. In 1920 he joined the staff of the RCM, and remained there until 1979. From the late 1930s, after the death of his son because of polio, Howells turned increasingly to choral and organ music. Though not an orthodox Christian, Howells was chiefly identified with the composition of religious music. His most famous works includes Hymnus Paradisi, Stabat Mater and Requiem.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Howells

***

Andrew Lumsden (born 1962) has been Organist and Director of Music of Winchester Cathedral Choir since 2002. Lumsden trained at Winchester College, RSAMD and St John's College, Cambridge before taking up the position of Assistant Organist at Southwark Cathedral in 1985. From there he moved to Westminster Abbey in 1988 as Sub-Organist and thence to Lichfield Cathedral in 1992 as Organist and Master of the Choristers until moving to Winchester Cathedral in 2002. He is currently the director of the Waynflete Singers. Lumsden has also appeared on several televisions programs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Lumsden_(choral_director)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

FLAC, tracks

Links in comment

Enjoy!