CHOIR OF CLARE COLLEGE / TIMOTHY BROWN - English Anthems. Hymns & Laments From Cambridge CHOIR OF CLARE COLLEGE / TIMOTHY BROWN

Alto presents a remastered collection of English sacred choral music performed by the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge under Timothy Brown.

The first half of the programme gathers Tudor and early Baroque settings of grief and lament, including Tallis's Lamentations of Jeremiah, Byrd's Civitas sancti tui, and contrasting settings of "When David Heard" by both Weelkes and Tomkins, alongside two verse anthems by Purcell.

The second half moves into the nineteenth and twentieth centuries with anthems by Parry, Walton, Howells, Finzi, Ireland, and Stanford, tracing the English cathedral tradition from its Tudor roots into the modern era.

Together the album demonstrates the development of English composers, across some four hundred years, through shared biblical texts and grief-laden themes, and how they came to produce some of the choral repertoire's most affecting music.

“with Hubert Parry’s famous anthem, they are clearly on familiar ground here and despatch a confi dent performance. Herbert Howells’ setting of Like as the Hart, is wonderfully haunting and sung with obvious affection and tenderness in this exquisite setting. John Ireland’s Greater Love builds to a majestic climax before subsiding to a hushed and moving conclusion, whilst Finzi’s God is gone up, possesses a sense of joy which the choir relishes. A similar sense of unashamed joyousness is evident in Stanford’s Coelos ascendit ... Walton’s Set me as a seal completes a fi ne group of works that show the wealth of variety that was emerging in British music during the fi rst half of the twentieth century.”
—MusicWeb International