St Mary's Singers of Truro Cathedral, Christopher Gray - Salmow Kernewek
STYLE: Choral RATING OUR PRODUCT CODE: 77837- LABEL: Regent REGCD291 FORMAT: CD Album ITEMS: 1
Reviewed by Steven Whitehead
Much as I enjoy listening to new music it can sometimes be tricky to get to grips with it. First of all, let it be said that I did indeed enjoy this new recording of new works from Cornish composers and the choir are very good indeed. The St Mary's Singers of Truro Cathedral is the chamber choir of the cathedral as well as being the singers when the Cathedral Choir is unavailable. Thus the choir sing within the Anglican choral tradition and also support contemporary choral music with an emphasis on introducing young people to classical music. On this nicely presented disc we have a beautiful collection of new choral and organ music written by composers associated with Cornwall, in order of appearance: Russell Pascoe, Paul Drayton, Jonathan Carne, Paul Comeau and Graham Fitkin. Most of the 77 minutes of this recording is new, with only Drayton's setting of "The New College Service" having been previously recorded. Trying to find points of comparison can be risky but the names that came to my mind as I listened were Finzi, Rutter and Tavener; in other words. 20th century English choral music. Pascoe's "Love's Agonie" uses three medieval lyrics and there is some Latin elsewhere but no Cornish which rather undoes the impression given by the lovely cover artwork (Miller's Cornubia - The Churches Of Cornwall) and the title, 'Salmow Kernewek' or 'Cornish Psalms'. The Psalms in question are "Out Of The Depths", "I Will Lift Up Mine Eyes" and "Praise The Lord O My Soul", all settings of English translations by Russell Pascoe. Christopher Gray and Tom Little provide the organ accompaniments and solos and Gray's direction is very assured throughout.
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