Timothy Hamilton's Requiem mass is not neo-Romantic, nor neoclassic: it is a work in pure late 19th century style. What you'll think of it may depend on your attitude toward the style in general, but, this said, the work treats its text in an original way and does not have the flavor of slavish imitation of anything or anybody. Start with the performance itself, with Hamilton himself conducting the Rosenau Sinfonia, a festival ensemble, and the composer's handpicked choir Cantoribus. The ad hoc nature of these forces, ...
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Timothy Hamilton's Requiem mass is not neo-Romantic, nor neoclassic: it is a work in pure late 19th century style. What you'll think of it may depend on your attitude toward the style in general, but, this said, the work treats its text in an original way and does not have the flavor of slavish imitation of anything or anybody. Start with the performance itself, with Hamilton himself conducting the Rosenau Sinfonia, a festival ensemble, and the composer's handpicked choir Cantoribus. The ad hoc nature of these forces, gathered for the live premiere of the work in 2015 and reassembled for this recording a few days later at the acoustically impressive St-Jude-on-the-Hill Church, allows Hamilton to avoid the weight of the British choral tradition and shape the music to his own needs. And so he does: his choral sopranos ripple with vibrato, and his fine quartet of soloists is positively operatic. The performance reflects a great deal of care. Marking the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of World War I,...
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