The works on this Hyperion Peter Maxwell Davies disc are all new; outside of the short organ work Reliqui domum meum composed in 1996, all of this music was composed in the opening years of the twenty-first century. The Missa parvula is a radiant and numinous piece scored for mostly unison children's voices and organ, whereas Maxwell Davies' setting of the Mass calls for full chorus and two organs and is in a somewhat tougher idiom; yet it is not without its moments of loveliness. There are two pieces for chorus alone, Dum ...
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The works on this Hyperion Peter Maxwell Davies disc are all new; outside of the short organ work Reliqui domum meum composed in 1996, all of this music was composed in the opening years of the twenty-first century. The Missa parvula is a radiant and numinous piece scored for mostly unison children's voices and organ, whereas Maxwell Davies' setting of the Mass calls for full chorus and two organs and is in a somewhat tougher idiom; yet it is not without its moments of loveliness. There are two pieces for chorus alone, Dum complerentur and Veni Sancti Spiritus, that demonstrate what a fine choir Westminster Cathedral has and the splendid acoustics in the cathedral itself. Hyperion's recording engineers are to be applauded for their matchless rendering of these performances; one can actually hear the decay of the voices disappearing into the nave of the cathedral. Roderic Dunnett's liner notes dwell confusingly on some aspects of Maxwell Davies' deep appreciation of sixteenth century music. You can hear...
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