Gustav Holst - The Evening Watch & other choral works (Hilary Davan Wetton)

Information

Composer: Gustav Holst

• Two Psalms, H117
• Six Choruses, H186, Op. 53
• The Evening Watch, H159, Op. 43 No. 1
• Seven Partsongs, H162, Op. 44
• Nunc dimittis, H127

Holst Singers & Orchestra

Hilary Davan Wetton, conductor

Date: 1989

Label: Hyperion

https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_CDH55170

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Review

This collection draws the eye by its title: The evening watch, an unaccompanied eight-part motet for mixed choir with two soloists, which lies at the centre of the programme. It is a remarkably concentrated piece, just short of five minutes, a questioning dialogue (by the seventeenth-century English metaphysical poet, Henry Vaughan) between the Body, and the Soul, parting at the moment of death. Holst asks for a serene sustained pianissimo until the last bars, when the choral sound expands into a blaze of fervour to illuminate the closing words: ''Yet, this take with thee; the last gasp of time is thy first breath, and man's etennal prime''.

It is a superb moment, wonderfully realized here. Earlier we have had two imaginative Psalm settings, the first (No. 86) also in the fonm of a dialogue, the second (a resplendent Psalm 148) using a very famous tune with its repeated ''Alleluias'' has another climax to send shivers down the spine The Six choruses for male voices, written in 1931–2; were among Holst's last works and have a reputation of emotional austerity. But here the singing brings out the underlying feeling and there is certainly no reserve in ''How mighty are the Sabbaths'' while the ''Drinking Song'' combines earthiness with a genially sophisticated response to the positive sentiments expressed by the singers, who point out that ''Bacchus drinking water hath no man seen''. The Partsongs for women's voices are set to words by Robert Bridges and show the composer's special feeling for female vocal timbre and his ready response to words where the meaning can be elusive, inviting an intangible mystidsm in the music. Yet ''Sorrow and Joy'', with its characteristic 7/4 rhythms, spiritedly leans towards the latter of the title's alternatives, while ''Angel spirits of sleep'' has an ethereal, dreamlike beauty. The most ambitious and final setting. ''Assemble all ye maidens'', is a narrative ballad about a lost love. The words understandably moved Holst greatly (''But now for many days the dewy grass has shown no markings of his feet at morn: And watching she has seen no shadow pass the moonlit walk, and heard no music borne''). Holst follows the narrative line with masterly subtlety and a restrained emotional power that is profoundly moving. The programme ends satisfyingly with an eloquent unaccompanied Nunc dimittis, written in 1915.

The performances here are wonderfully responsive. All the solo contributions are distinglushed: the individual voices seem perfectly attuned to the special colouring of Holst's music. Hilary Davan Wetton's choice of tempos seems instinctively apt and the graduation of dynamics, from the gentlest pianissimo to chmaxes that can be thrillingly expansive, is splendidly controlled. The very appropriate recording venue—St Paul's Girls' School, Hammersmith—produces the most beautiful atmospheric bloom on voices and the accompanying strings. The balance is wholly natural and the effect very realistic: one feels drawn into this highly original music in the most compulsive way. Highly recommended. If you only know The Planets this concert could bring an added dimension to your appredation of Holst's genius.

-- Ivan March, Gramophone

More reviews:
http://www.classical.net/music/recs/reviews/h/hyp55170a.php

https://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2007/feb07/Holst_CDH55170.htm

https://www.amazon.com/Holst-Choral-Music-Evening-Watch/dp/B0001B0A8U

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Gustav Holst (21 September 1874 – 25 May 1934) was an English composer and teacher. He studied at the Royal College of Music under Charles Villiers Stanford. Holst served as musical director at Morley College from 1907 to 1924, and pioneered music education for women at St Paul's Girls' School from 1905 until his death in 1934. He was an important influence on younger English composers, including Edmund Rubbra, Michael Tippett and Benjamin Britten. Apart from The Planets and a handful of other works, his music was generally neglected until the 1980s, when recordings of much of his output became available.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_Holst

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Hilary Davan Wetton (born 23 December 1943) is a British conductor. He is Musical Director of the City of London Choir and Alina Orchestra, as well as Associate Conductor of the London Mozart Players. He is Conductor Emeritus of the Milton Keynes City Orchestra (of which he was founding conductor) and of the Guildford Choral Society which he conducted from 1968 to 2008. Davan Wetton was Founder Conductor of the Holst Singers with whom he made a number of acclaimed recordings. He was Director of Music at St Albans School, Cranleigh School, St Paul's Girls School and Tonbridge School.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilary_Davan_Wetton

https://www.hilarydavanwetton.co.uk/

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