Holst Singers - The Evening Watch And Other Choral Music
STYLE: Choral RATING OUR PRODUCT CODE: 9852- LABEL: Helios CDH55170 FORMAT: CD Album
Reviewed by Steven Whitehead
Holst wrote little choral music and by no means was all Christian in content. The opening works in this collection are settings of Psalms 86 and 148 written before the great success of "Mars" from 'The Planets'. Psalm 148 uses a famous melody from the GeistlicheKirchengesänge of 1623 and is simply glorious. This is followed by a suite of six choruses for male voices and string orchestra, two of which have texts by Peter Abelard plus an "Intercession" using words by Sedulius Scottus and all translated by Helen Waddell. The other three are secular in content although not without musical interest. Indeed, this is the case for the rest of this collection: pleasant music, well sung throughout, but of little interest to collectors of Christian music, until we get to the closing piece, an unaccompanied "Nunc Dimittis" from 1915. In it Holst pays his musical respects to Byrd and Palestrina and brings the collection to a fine conclusion. Please note that this is a mid-price reissue first released by Hyperion in 1989.
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