The Planets & St Paul’s Suite

   in Choir & Organ (Jan, 2016)
This does exactly what it says on the label. Confronted with the names of Parry, Mendelssohn and Stanford closely followed by Ireland, Harris, Howells and Bullock, to name but a few, the jaded reviewer might be forgiven for thinking, ‘Here we go again!’ To revive the spirits the singing has to be exemplary, delivered with insight and perception, and soloists and accompaniments need to be impeccable – and these performances come very close to that. The simplest sounding music is often the hardest to sing and Tavener’s Song for Athene is a case in point: young basses lack the resonance to bring off completely Tavener’s drone effect, but this is a …