BBC Singers & Martyn Brabbins - John Pickard: Mass in Troubled Times (2023) [Official Digital Download 24/96]

Previous BIS releases of works by John Pickard have mainly featured instrumental compositions. This recording presents another facet of the British composer’s work, with compositions for choir under the expert direction of Martyn Brabbins as well as two instrumental pieces. The five short Latin motets as well as Ozymandias, Pickard’s opus 1, can be described as ‘occasional pieces’ composed during the composer’s student years or for the choir he conducts at the University of Bristol. They display solid tonal grounding and mainly homophonic writing and provide a stepping-stone to some of the more dissonant style found in the latter works. Written for the BBC Singers, whose reputation is well established, the Mass in Troubled Times is an ambitious work bearing witness to a context of global uncertainty. The Mass is a collaboration with the writer Gavin D’Costa, who conceived a complex text based on multiple sources in five languages, combining Western and Middle Eastern religious texts with poetry evoking the plight of refugees. Orion for trumpet and organ, which is partly programmatic, evoking the most splendid constellation and allowing trumpeter Chloë Abbott to shine, and Tesserae for solo organ, with its dazzling virtuosity, played here by the work’s first performer, David Goode, complete this disc.

Tracklist:
01. Pickard: Three Latin Motets: I. O nata lux
02. Pickard: Three Latin Motets: II. Te lucis ante terminum
03. Pickard: Three Latin Motets: III. Ubi caritas et amor
04. Pickard: O magnum mysterium
05. Pickard: Orion: I. Nebula
06. Pickard: Orion: II. Alnitak
07. Pickard: Orion: III. Betelgeuse
08. Pickard: Ave Maris Stella
09. Pickard: Ozymandias
10. Pickard: Tesserae
11. Pickard: Mass in Troubled Times: Introitus
12. Pickard: Mass in Troubled Times: Kyrie
13. Pickard: Mass in Troubled Times: Gloria
14. Pickard: Mass in Troubled Times: Credo
15. Pickard: Mass in Troubled Times: Sanctus
16. Pickard: Mass in Troubled Times: Agnus Dei


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