Choir & Organ

Rhona Clarke came up through a distinctively Irish choral culture, and writing for voices has been one of the constants in a career that has taken several intriguing turns of style. The music here is suffused with a sense of loss and grief, though the Three Carols on Medieval Texts liven the proceedings and her setting of The Old Woman adds a bizarre touch. Clarke’s Requiem and Do Not Stand at my Grave and Weep set the tone for an album impeccably performed by the Latvian choir, but perhaps just a shade too long. The lighter stuff, beautifully done though it is, probably belongs on another record. **

** [ in fact the ‘lighter stuff’ was on another record as well, the Irish words-and-music album ‘Ghost Songs’ (MSV 28599)]

—Brian Morton