Touching Wood Charles Wood's church music, with BASIL RAMSEY Priory    PRCD 754

It is extraordinary that two Anglo-Irish composers -- Charles Villiers Stanford and Charles Wood -- should have been almost exact contemporaries. Whilst their particular compositional styles were different, the language was similar and they mostly wrote within the acceptable boundaries without bold excursions into anything unusual. Both wrote church music; both wrote for the established church in the UK.

This recording is the first of two devoted to Wood, so it includes known and virtually unknown anthems and motets. The mixed choir at Gonville & Caius College in Cambridge, which was Wood's college, give dedicated and expressive performances of this varied batch of anthems, motets, and organ music from the chapel organists. If this should be unknown territory for you, be careful, and be warned that church music can be orthodox and dull, whilst the exceptions reach for the stars. This selection keeps to the middle so the choice must be yours. Here is a fair example [listen -- track 11, 0:00-1:10] to a paraphrase of Psalm 93.

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Record Box is Music & Vision's regular Wednesday series of shorter CD reviews