This spring is a time for rediscovering Requiems that I haven’t sung in ages. First it was Mozart, now Howells, which I have only sung once before, in my Cambridge days. (There are other Requiems that have long awaited another performance from me – Cherubini, Bruneau and indeed Brahms, which I have rehearsed twice with Bristol Choral Society but never performed with them). Later in the year, I hope to return to another piece by Howells that I haven’t sung for an equally long time – Take Him, Earth, for Cherishing. These two pieces were written thirty years apart, and yet I can’t really distinguish them stylistically at all. Did Howells’ style not change in that time, or have I just failed to pick up the ways in which it developed?
I joined the CanZona choir for a Holy Week concert – no risk of overload as Bristol Choral was taking a pre-Easter rehearsal break. We paired the Howells with Fauré’s Requiem, and framed it with two settings of the opening verses of the Stabat Mater by Schubert (D175) and Will Todd (from his Passion Music).
It was gratifying to perform to a full church (although it doesn’t need huge numbers to fill St Nicholas’) and we were fortunate in securing the services of David Bednall on the organ.