John Dressler reviews our CD of the Choral Works of Gustav Holst, which you can buy here.

This disc contains a compilation of part songs, a folk song and carols, brought together to create a varied CD of some of Gustav Holst’s lesser-known works for voices. Founded in 2011 the Caritas Chamber Choir has members from the East Kent area; the group often performs in Canterbury Cathedral.

Mr Preece chose to open the disc with a wonderful note-against-note part-song, Now rest thee from all care, demonstrating the choir’s truly satisfying balance, diction and phrasing. Like several other works presented here, Mr Preece has made an engraving from the original manuscript.

The set of Four Carols, dating from 1916 to 1918, need to be explored by choirs globally; it includes the familiar Lullay my liking and the not-so-familiar Bring us in good ale, which showcases brilliantly the men of the choir both in unison and in harmony.

The listener will immediately compare and contrast Holst’s Dives and Lazarus (1917) with the popular work of Ralph Vaughan Williams but of some 20 years later. In particular, I enjoyed the chord progression Holst uses in the final verse.

The listener will be pleased with Holst’s settings of especially To Sylvia and Come away Death part of the set of Five Part Songs composed just prior to 1900; they display solid imitative singing style of the women against that of the men.

The stand-alone It was a lover and his lass is remarkable for its more reflective narrative of the poetry than the more lusty intent style sometimes set; several beautiful chordal structures are brought forward in this primarily note-against-note setting.

The disc concludes with a setting of Thomas Hood’s I love thee. In similar fashion to Now rest thee that opens this recording, the setting highlights the roundness of timbre that the choir has. Another early work from around 1900, this setting features a wonderful series of chords smoothly moving about in peaceable manner, almost forecasting those used by Walton and Howells.

This is a most welcome disc to acquaint us with Holst’s vocal writing, less heard today in concert halls or sanctuaries than his large and smaller orchestral works. Many of these pieces given us here by Mr Preece and the Caritas Chamber Choir have now received world-première recording status.

This review of our Holst cd appears on Ritmo, the Spanish classical music magazine, where it is highly recommended.

Written by Jerónimo Marin, translation by @BobMcKayEU

The scarcity in the range of media that Gustav Holst himself encouraged has resulted in little acclaim or awareness of his music. According to the Holst Society, founded in May 2017, the catalogue contains 360 works, most of which are dedicated to voice, be it solo or choral.

It’s no surprise, therefore, that of the fifteen recorded works on this marvellous album, nine are world première recordings in finely tuned editions by Benedict Preece himself, among which can be found not only four of the Five Part Songs H48, but also three works with lyrics by William Morris, who was the root of this project, when Caritas Chamber Choir gave their Madrid debut in 2017 for the exhibition dedicated to him by the Juan March Foundation (A. W. Morris, of course).

Caritas Chamber Choir is a semi-professional choir founded in 2011 in the county of Kent, of an undeniable quality, as can be heard in this their third CD, and in addition to the blend between their voices, both their special care for the articulation of the text and the musical phrasing stand out, always with clear thought for the meaning. Furthermore, the perfect velvety colouring of their basses, with no forcing of the lower register whatsoever, eases the tuning and harmonic construction of the ensemble. Preece proves that Holst is more than The Planets

About our Christmas concert:

“It was a superb evening, pitch perfect – in all my years at St Peter’s I have never heard the building resonate so well, truly uplifting – congratulations to everyone.”

From Canon John Weetman of Selby Abbey:

“I’ve not heard such a superb sound in the Abbey since I’ve been here – it was quite a revelation as to how the building really ‘sings’ in the right hands (or voices!)”

© Caritas


This website makes use of cookies. Please see our privacy policy for details.

OK