Ian Venables: Requiem, Herbert Howells: Anthems for Choir & Orchestra

Featuring

Benjamin Nicholas
Eppie Sharp
Aine Smith
LucyAnne Fletcher
Edmund Saddington
Oxford Contemporary Sinfonia

Choir of Merton College, Oxford
Herbert Howells
Ian Venables

Did you know?

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Performer Biography

The Choir of Merton College, Oxford, featured on this album, won the 'Choral Award' at the BBC Music Magazine Awards in 2020 for their recording of Gabriel Jackson's 'The Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ'.

Recording & Production

This album features the premiere recordings of Ian Venables's God be merciful, Op. 51, and the orchestral versions of several Herbert Howells anthems.

Composer Biography

Herbert Howells, one of the composers on this album, was a passionate autodidact who developed a lifelong passion for setting words to music.

Compositional Technique

Unlike Fauré and Duruflé, Ian Venables concludes his Requiem with the Lux aeterna, using light as a metaphor for the soul's journey.

Critical Reception

Ian Venables, one of the composers on this album, has been described by 'Musical Opinion' as 'Britain's greatest living composer of art song' and by 'BBC Music Magazine' as 'a song composer as fine as Finzi and Gurney'.

Composition History

Ian Venables's Requiem, Op. 48 was commissioned by Bryce and Cynthia Somerville in memory of their parents, Thomas and Doreen, and first performed liturgically in 2018 by Adrian Partington and the Choir of Gloucester Cathedral.

Composition History

Ian Venables's God be merciful, Op. 51, was commissioned by Gary Morris in 2020 to celebrate Robert Venables Q.C. (no relation to the composer) being elected to an Honorary Fellowship of St Edmund Hall, Oxford.