Christ Church Cathedral Choir, Kirsty Hopkins & Mark Dobell – Howard Goodall: Invictus. A Passion (2018) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Christ Church Cathedral Choir, Kirsty Hopkins & Mark Dobell – Howard Goodall: Invictus. A Passion (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 57:59 minutes | 1,04 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © CORO Connections

Persecution of the innocent, malevolent authority exerting itself against ideas that threaten and challenge, the power of a peaceful, loving humility in the face of tyranny, the facing-down of fear. Such is the power of the Passion story and so it appears in Howard Goodall’s new work, Invictus: A Passion. Forty-five years of writing musical theatre (as well as some more hilarious scores for Mr. Bean and for Blackadder!) has inevitably shaped the way he sets narrative texts, carefuly avoiding the abstract, opaque or overly elusive. Likewise he makes no apology for his musical idiom being very, very approachable. Goodall has found a route directly to people’s hearts, telling the story afresh through his choice of texts – not the Gospels but poems by various female authors: Gethsemane by Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Mary Magdalene and the Other Mary by Christina Georgina Rossetti and Slave Auction by Ellen Watkins Harper, interwoven with the 1611 verse narrative of the biblical Passion by Æmelia Lanyer née Bassano, one of the first books published in the English language by a female poet. The world premiere recording of this brand new choral work is performed by the Choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, with the Lanyer Ensemble and soloists from The Sixteen, conducted by Stephen Darlington, the very same team that gave the European premiere in May 2018.

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