Howells Choral Works
2Cd set
(CHAN 241-34)
Finzi Singers/Paul Spicer
Andrew Lumsden and Harry Bicket (organ)

This CD is a collectors' item produced by Chandos to put a lot of our previous Howells recordings into a box on two CDs.

CD1: 1 'Redcliffe' Te Deum  2 Even Such Is Time  3 The Summer Is Coming  4 Nunc Dimittis (Westminster Cathedral)  5 The House of the Mind  6-7 Two Madrigals  8 Salve Regina  9-16 Mass in the Dorian Mode  17 God Is Gone Up

CD2: 1-3 Three carol-anthems   4 Sweetest of Sweets  5 Haec Dies  6 Regina Coeli  7 Long, long Ago  8 A Sequence for St Michae l 9 Antiphon  10-15 Requiem  16 Take Him, Earth, for Cherishing  17 Thee Will I Love

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Bliss: Choral Works
(CHAN 8980)
Paul Spicer (director)
Andrew Lumsden (organ)
Finzi Wind Ensemble

1 Shield of Faith  2 Mar Portugues  3 Birthday song for a Royal Child  4 River Music  5 The world is charged with the grandeur of God

‘The Finzi Singers have been carving out a niche for themselves as specialists in contemporary British choral music for over a decade now…they have a rich palette from which Spicer can draw his colours. The result is … highly individual but enormously invigorating …and should have much excitement in store.’
The Singer

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Britten: Choral Edition
Volume 1
(CHAN9511)
Paul Spicer (director)
Andrew Lumsden (organ)

1 Hymn to St Peter op.56a  2 A Hymn of St Columba  3 A Hymn to the Virgin  4 Hymn to St Cecilia op.27  5 Rejoice in the Lamb op.30  6 Choral Dances from Gloriana  7 A.M.D.G (settings of Gerard Manley Hopkins)

‘The Finzis bring a welcome freshness and vitality to even the most familiar works.’ Classic CD

‘Andrew Lumsden's sparkingly rhythmical organ accompaniment could not be bettered.’ Organists' Review

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Britten: Choral Edition
Volume 2
(CHAN9598)
Paul Spicer (director)
Andrew Lumsden (organ)
Susan Drake (harp)

1 Jubilate Deo in E flat  2 Te Deum  3 Antiphon op.56b  4 Missa Brevis op.63  5 A Wedding Anthem op.46  6 Sweet was the Song the Virgin Sung  7 A Ceremony of Carols op.28 (with mediaeval pronunciation)  8 Festival Te Deum op.32  9 Jubilate Deo in C

‘Britten's choral writing comes alive in this new recording from Chandos. Gone is the rather perfunctory, reverential approach of the cathedral choir. Here, Britten's vocal lines sweep you along, often with uncharacteristic abandon.’ The Singer

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Britten: Choral Edition
Volume 3
(CHAN9701)
Paul Spicer (director)
Lichfield Cathedral Choristers (Andrew Lumsden, director)

1 Five Flower Songs op.47  2 Advance Democracy  3 Sacred and Profane op.91  4 A Boy was Born op.3

‘Paul Spicer's sympathetic interpretations explore many aspects of Britten's choral genius and he is able to relax into an established tradition. He produces great variety in choral effects and some beautifully paced performances.’ Organists' Review

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Elgar: Part Songs
(CHAN9269)
Paul Spicer (director)

1 Three Part-songs op.18: O happy eyes, Love, My love dwelt in a northern land  2 Five Part-songs from the Greek Anthology op.45: Yea, cast me from heights of the mountains, Whether I find thee, After many a dusty mile, It's oh! To be a wild wind, Feasting I watch  3 Four Part-songs op.53: There is sweet msuic, Deep in my soul, O wild west wind!, Owls (Epitaph)  4 Two Part-songs op.71: The shower, The fountain  5 Two Part-songs op.73: Love's tempest, Serenade  6 Death on the Hills op.72  7 How Calmly the Evening  8 Weary Wind of the West  8 Evening Scene 9 The Prince of Sleep  10 Go, Song of Mine op.57

‘This revelatory new recording of partsongs for unaccompanied choir, Anybody already interested in Elgar will appreciate the insight into his music provided by these songs, and by the lucid, brightly pointed performances of the Finzi Singers under Paul Spicer.’ Hilary Finch: The Times (nominated for a Gramophone Award)

‘The Finzi Singers – and this seems to be habitual with them – work the music into their system, hear it as though in the collective mind's ear, and know then just what is required of them. The sforzando and diminuendo on the word 'heart' (His heart is colder than the clay) in the last line, for instance, (of My love dwelt in a northern land) is here much more than an achievement of choral technique or discipline.’ John Steane: The Gramophone

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Finzi: Choral Works
(CHAN 8936)
Paul Spicer (director)
Harry Bicket (organ)

1 God is gone up op.27/2  2 Welcome sweet and sacred feast op.27/3  3 Three Short Elegies op.5  4 Thou dids't delight my eyes op.32  5 My lovely one op.27/1  6 Let us now praise famous men op.35  7 Seven Partsongs op.17: I praise the tender flower, I have loved flowers that fade, My spirit sang all day, Clear and gentle stream, Nightingales, Haste on, my joys!, Wherefore tonight so full of care  8 Magnificat op.36  9 White-flowering days op.37  10 All this night op.33  11 Lo, the full final sacrifice op.26

‘Eighty minutes if musical bliss, thanks to performances of supreme beauty and recording to match the composer's inspiration.’ Fanfare (USA) ‘The Want List’.

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Holst & Vaughn Williams: Choral Music
(CHAN9425)
Paul Spicer (director)

1 Vaughan Williams: Five English Folksongs: The Dark-Eyed Sailor, Springtime of the Year, Just as the Tide was Flowing, The Lover's Ghost, Wassail Song  2 Holst: Ave Maria op.9b  3 Vaughn Williams: Vaiiant for Truth  4 Vaughn Williams: O Vos Omnes  5 Holst: The evening watch op.43/1  6 Vaughn Williams: O Taste and See  7 Vaughn Williams: The Souls of the Righteous  8 Holst: This have I done for my true love op.34/1  9 Holst: Sing me the men op.43/2  10 Vaughan Williams: Three Shakespeare Songs: Full Fathom Five, The Cloud-capp'd Towers, Over Hill, Over Dale  11 Holst: Four part-songs: O lady leave that silken thread, Soft and gently, The autumn is old, Winter and the birds  12 Vaughn Williams: The Turtle Dove

‘Polished and expressive performances.’ BBC Music Magazine

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Howells & Bax: Choral Works
(CHAN 9139)
Paul Spicer (director)

1 Bax: This Worldes Joie  2 Howells: Two Madrigals: In youth is pleasure, Before me, careless lying  3 Bax: Mater Ora Filium  4 Howells: Long, long ago  5 Bax: Five Greek Folksongs: Miracle of St. Basil, The Bridesmaid's Song, In Far-off Malta, The Happy Tramp, A Pilgrim's Chant  6 Howells: The Summer is Coming  7 Bax: I Sing of a Maiden that is makeless  8 Howells: Take him, earth, for cherishing

‘Always with the Finzi Singers there is a fine intelligence at work, and a scrupulous care for the texture of choral sound. And as ever, there is the prospect of uniterrupted delight in the programme itself.’ Gramophone

‘Although there are many recordings of this work (Howells's Take him, Earth for Cherishing) this is arguably the most moving of all.’ CD Review

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Howells & Bernard Stevens:
Choral Works
(CHAN9021)
Paul Spicer (director)

Howells:  1 Mass in the Dorian Mode  2 Salve Regina  3 O Salutaris Hostia  4 Sweetest of Sweets  5 Come, my soul  6 Antiphon  7 Nunc Dimittis  8 Regina Caeli  Stevens:  9 Mass for Double Choir

‘Critics Choice.’ The Gramophone

‘For an hour's peace to meditate on the blessings of music at such instant command there is the first recording of two English masses, one by Bernard Stevens, the other an early work by Howells, sung by the Finzi Singers whose records are earning their welcome as reliably as any.’ John Steane, The Gramophone

‘A redemptive performance by the Finzi Singers under Paul Spicer: a choir of real accomplishment that goes from strength to strength with every disc it makes.’ Independent on Sunday

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Howells: Choral Works
(CHAN9458)
Paul Spicer (director)
Andrew Lumsden (organ)

1 Behold, O God our defender  2 Three Carol-Anthems  3 Here is the little door  4 Sing lullaby  5 A Spotless Rose  6 Te Deum for St Mary Redcliffe, Bristol  7 The Scribe  8 Thee will I love  9 Blessed are the Dead  10 Even such is time  11 Inheritance  12 Haec Dies  13 God is gone up

‘The Finzi Singers give inspired, radiant, evocative performances in clear, wide-perspective sound, of Howells's smaller choral gems ranging across the span of his career.’ BBC Music Magazine

‘This is another exemplary addition to the Finzi Singers' ever-expanding discography…As we have come to expect from this partnership on record, these are splendidly fervent, finely disciplined performances. A hearty recommendation.’ The Gramophone

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Howells and Vaughan Williams: English Romantic Choral Music
(CHAN9019)
Paul Spicer (director)
Harry Bicket (organ)
Jonathan Freeman-Attwood (trumpet)

Vaughan Williams:  1 Prayer to the Father of Heaven  2 A vision of aeroplanes  3 Lord, thou hast been our refuge  Howells:  4 A Sequence for St Michael  5 The House of the Mind  6 Requiem

‘Vaughan Williams set this (A Vision of Aeroplanes) as a concerto with an organ swirling and pulsing as it conjures up the rhythm, bite and enrgy of aero engines. Listen to the Finzi Singers directed by Paul Spicer to experience the effect.’ Classic CD

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The Hussey Legacy
(Cantus CAN301-2)
Paul Spicer (director)
Andrew Lumsden (organ)
Stephan Coombs and Christopher Scott (piano duet)

Commissions by Walter Hussey for St Matthew's Northampton

1 Leighton Let all the World  2 Britten Rejoice in the Lamb  3 Tavener The Call  4 Howells One thing have I desired of the Lord  5 Crosse The Covenant of the Rainbow  6 Brian Judge Ambrosian Prayer  7 Finzi Lo, the full final sacrifice

‘The Finzi Singers are the best small professional choir I have heard since the heyday of Imogen Holst's Purcell Singers and are directed with outstanding musicianship by Paul Spicer.’ Michael Kennedy in The Gramophone

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Leighton: Choral Music
(CHAN 9485)
Paul Spicer (director)
Andrew Lumsden (organ)

Commissions by Walter Hussey for St Matthew's Northampton

1 God's grandeur  2 What love is this of thine?  3 Give me the wings of faith  4 Crucifixus pro nobis op.38  5 Lully, lulla, thou little tiny child op.25b  6 Mass for double choir op.44  7 Laudate Pueri for three choirs op.68

‘Passionate, committed, magnificently sung and directed and supported by strong solo work and Andrew Lumsden's inspired organ playing. Among the finest choral releases of the year.’ Tower Classical News

‘The Finzi Singers reach new heights with their Leighton disc, demonstrating an impressive understanding of this elusive music.’ BBC Music Magazine

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Moeran, Warlock: Choral Works
(CHAN9182)
Paul Spicer (director)

Morean:  1 Songs of Springtime  2 Phillida and Corydon  Warlock:  3 A Cornish Carol  2 I saw a fair maiden  2 Benedicamus domino  2 The full heart  2 The rich cavalcade  2 Corpus Christi  2 All the flowers of the Spring  2 As dew in Aprylle  2 Bethlehem Down  2 A Cornish Christmas Carol

‘This disc contains some of the most beautiful choral singing I have heard and two – possibly four – difinitive performances of Warlock's choral songs. Go out and buy it immediately if you haven't already done so!’ Peter Warlock Society newsletter

‘Again the innate musicality of the Finzi Singers pays handsome dividends; these warm-toned richly expressive voices seem to capture the very essence of this uniquely lovely music.’ Gramophone

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Sweet Echo
(Abacus 604-2)
Music by Peter Warlock and Elizabeth Poston
Paul Spicer (director)
Brian Raynor Cook (baritone)
Clifford Benson (piano)

Poston:  1 Jesus Christ the Apple Tree  2 Re-creations  3 Autobiography  Warlock:  4 A Cornish Carol  5 The rich cavalcade  6 All the flowers of the Spring  7 The Spring of the year  8 A Cornish Christmas Carol  9 The Full Heart  10 As dew in Aprylle  11 As dew in Aprylle  12 Bethlehem Down  13 Benedicamus Domino

‘The Finzi Singers, richand well-blended yet still agile and flexible, give them with an eloquent commitment.’ Hi-fi News

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