EMR CD094 | DETAILS
  EMR CD094
   
 

AND THE BLACKBIRD SANG
   
  Excalibur Voices
Duncan Aspden (dir.)
   
  EAN 5 060263 500889

EM Records is thrilled to introduce this disc from Excalibur Voices, “And the Blackbird Sang”, a remarkable recording showcasing the brilliance of English choral music.

 

Following their breathtaking debut at the 2024 English Music Festival, Excalibur Voices, under the direction of conductor Duncan Aspden, have collaborated with EM Records to produce a disc that is both an important and a stunningly beautiful addition to the choral repertoire.

 

This recording features a carefully curated selection of works that highlight the ensemble’s passion for English choral song, rhythmic suppleness, and musicianship rooted in poetry and storytelling. Among the highlights are several World Première recordings, including Herbert Howell’s “Creep Afore Ye Gang”, Robin Milford’s powerfully moving “Songs of Escape”, and Alan Rawsthorne’s evocatively resonant “A Rose for Lidice”. The disc also features beloved works by Gustav Holst, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, and Sir Henry Walford Davies, including Holst’s “This Have I Done For My True Love” and Walford Davies’s “Magdalen At Michael’s Gate”, the latter lending its title to the recording.

TRACK LISTING AND AUDIO EXTRACTS
     
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875–1912)
1. “SONG OF PROSPERINE”  
       
Herbert Howells (1892–1983)
2. “THE SCRIBE”  
3. “CREEP AFORE YE GANG” (World Première recording)  
4. “THE SHADOWS”  
       
Alan Rawsthorne (1905–1971)
5. “A ROSE FOR LIDICE” (World Première recording)  
       
Henry Walford Davies (1869–1941)
6. “MAGDALEN AT MICHAEL’S GATE”  
       
Gustav Holst (1874–1934)
7. “THIS HAVE I DONE FOR MY TRUE LOVE”  
       
Edgar Bainton (1880–1956)
8. “THE WILDERNESS”  
9. “ABOU BEN ADHEM” (World Première recording)  
10. “IN YOUTH IS PLEASURE” (World Première recording)  
       
Gustav Holst
11. “I LOVE MY LOVE”  
       
John Ireland (1879–1962)
12. “THERE IS A GARDEN IN HER FACE”  
13. “MAY FLOWERS” (World Première recording)  
14. “IN SUMMER WOODS”  
15. “EVENING SONG” (World Première recording)  
       
Robin Milford (1903–1959)
“SONGS OF ESCAPE” (World Première recording)
16. I. “Hear, O God”  
17. II. “Helen of Kirconnell”  
18. III. “The Spring of the Year”  
19. IV. “Lord, Let Me Know Mine End”  
20. V. “Port after Stormy Seas”  
       
Gustav Holst
21. “MATTHEW, MARK, LUKE AND JOHN”  

 

REVIEWS
Beautifully shaped by Benjamin Frith... Beguiling sounds, graced by the tawny richness and unexaggerated line of Richard Jenkinson’s cello playing... The sense of purpose and sureness of line of Ian Venables’ music is pure oxygen.
EMR CD31 | BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
Exquisitely rewarding... Ravishing accounts.
EMR CD029 | CHOIR AND ORGAN
This is music of great beauty and integrity and the performances fully do it justice. It would be criminal to let it pass you by.

EMR CD028 | INTERNATIONAL
RECORD REVIEW

The Bridge Quartet approach these pieces with a sympathetic and insightful warmth, and confirm their ambassadorial credentials for British chamber music. A lovely, radiant disc.
EMR CD025 | Gramophone
Duncan Honeybourne’s playing is astonishingly affectionate, yet never saccharine... Honeybourne plays with suave confidence.
EMR CD024 | INTERNATIONAL PIANO
Rupert Marshall-Luck is an ideal interpreter: generously but not effusively lyrical; agile and athletic... The warm, folk-song like slow movement is at times almost painfully beautiful, with a shimmering pastoral central section... Marshall-Luck is, again, indefatigable and keenly picks up on the work’s melancholic strain.  Finely recorded and with comprehensive booklet notes, this is a must for fans of 20th-century English repertoire.
EMR CD023 | THE STRAD