Howard Skempton – The Cloths of Heaven
Choral Music and Songs
The Exon Singers; Matthew Owens conductor
Delphian Records DCD34056 (2008)
£10
“a wonderfully nuanced performance from the Exon Singers and Matthew Owens” – Gramophone, Critic’s Choice of the Year
“The Exons are at their most exciting in exalted mode – the Sanctus from the Missa Brevis is thrilling” – BBC Music Magazine
Best known as a composer of exquisitely quirky miniatures for accordion or piano solo, Howard Skempton has in recent years developed an equally strong affinity for the choral medium. The Exon Singers’ programme includes a new Missa brevis composed especially for this recording, alongside songs and shorter choral pieces constituting a broad survey of Skempton’s output over the past twenty-five years.
Track listing:
- 1. Upon my lap my sovereign sits
- 2. O Saviour of the World
- 3. Locus iste
- 4. The Song of Songs
- 5. O Life!
- 6. Nature’s fire for organ
- 7. Adam lay y-bounden Magnificat & Nunc dimittis (Edinburgh Service)
- 8. Magnificat
- 9. Nunc dimittis
- 10-13. Lamentations
- 14. Beati quorum via
- 15-18. Emerson Songs
- 19. He wishes for the Cloths of Heaven
- 20. Ave Virgo sanctissima
- 21-25. Missa brevis
- 26. Ostende nobis Domine
- 27. Recessional for organ
Click here to download the PDF of published reviews of this disc.