Subdued Radiance

MIKE WHEELER listens to
music on the theme of Remembrance
from the Derwent Singers

A thoughtfully chosen programme, this, from the Derby-based Derwent Singers (St Mary's Church, Derby, UK, 11 November 2017), on the theme of Remembrance, with the choral items punctuated by readings from World War I poets Wilfred Owen, Isaac Rosenberg, C H Sorley and — a name new to me — Robert Palmer. Helped by the venue's generous acoustic, the choir produced a wall of sound at the big climaxes of Ireland's Greater Love Hath no Man. At the other end of the expressive spectrum they captured the inwardness of Charles Wood's rather saccharine Expectans Expectavi (with words by the same C H Sorley) and the poignant 'Trois Beaux Oiseaux du Paradis' from Ravel's Trois Chansons, his only work for unaccompanied choir...