“… Supported sensitively by harpist Louise Thomson, [Gustav Holst’s third set of Rig Veda hymns, Two Eastern Pictures and Dirge and Hymeneal] are all beautifully sung by the Corvus Consort under their director Freddie Crowley, and recorded with admirable clarity by Chandos.”
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The much-underrated talent of Elizabeth Poston… is represented here in An English Day-Book… Though performed numerous times during her lifetime, the set of 11 choruses remained unpublished; on this premiere recording, we hear them in a new modern edition sponsored by the Multitude of Voyces project…
The six other pieces on this CD date from the past seven years. Four of them, by Hilary Campbell, Gemma McGregor, Olivia Sparkhall and Judith Weir, are also products of the Multitude of Voyces initiative and were commissioned for the annual service for International Womens’ Day… The two pieces, both composed in 2024, by Shruthi Rajasekar, exhibit interesting elements of novelty. Ushās, commissioned by the Corvus Consort, was written in response to Holst’s third set of Rig Veda hymns and shares one of Holst’s texts (though set in Sanskrit rather than English translation). An interesting ritualistic experiment in its use of chant, its contemplative focus contrasts with the Latin of Livius’s Priestess and a much greater range of emotional states enunciated by the richer and varied textures of the six-part chorus.
