Robert Hollingworth conductor

Howells Requiem
Brahms Fest und Gedenksprüche
Bernard Hughes Precious Things
Kim Porter Pulchra Es Et Decora
Joanna Marsh Batter my heart
Reena Esmail TaReKiTa
Mark Edgley Smith Love is more thicker than forget

Howells’ Requiem has a truly iconic place in the twentieth-century English choral tradition. With translucent two-choir textures that for all the world ‘sound’ like different coloured light coming through stained-glass windows, the story behind the piece is the death of the composer’s son, Michael. Brahms’ two-choir textures are more festive though touch the heartstrings. The other five composers each bring strong responses to text: Bernard Hughes in deliberate simplicity to allow a famous poem to speak for itself or in the textures of the gold, helium and oil of Precious Things; Kim Porter in a luxurious approach to the Song of Songs text, Joanna Marsh in the urgency of John Donne’s appeal to God to ‘batter his heart’ while Reena Esmail’s TaReKiTa is practically a choralised piece of rhythm, based on Indian classical instruments