Giving generously A recording of church music by Peter Aston, introduced by BASIL RAMSEY Meridian    CDE 84444

English church music of the 20th century in its entirety ranged back and forth the common ground trampled by composers of all genres, leaving much of it a rather pitiable mess. As natural in human endeavour, those with the right measure of strength survive, and of those a lesser number gave worthily to their art.

Peter Aston has proved his understanding of voices in ensemble by the choral music he has written over the years, much of it small-scale, and some of it within the scope of amateur choirs. In essence it is mostly simple in language yet unfailingly effective in performance, and this CD gathers a mix of his best pieces [listen -- track 6, 2:35-3:35].

The performers give generously of their art in offering this music with care for all the nuances of (mostly) a capella singing.

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