Most of this disc is for fans of Holst only -- after all, how many almost unaccompanied part songs can any human being stand? -- but on at least one song, this disc is for every spiritual human being on the planet. O Spiritual Pilgrim, Holst's setting of six lines from the "Fourth Song of The Gates of Damascus," was one of his last works and its purity is as sublime as its text. While anyone but a Holst fan will lose interest in this disc before the Choral Folk Songs (6) at its end -- after all, how many superbly sung and ...
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Most of this disc is for fans of Holst only -- after all, how many almost unaccompanied part songs can any human being stand? -- but on at least one song, this disc is for every spiritual human being on the planet. O Spiritual Pilgrim, Holst's setting of six lines from the "Fourth Song of The Gates of Damascus," was one of his last works and its purity is as sublime as its text. While anyone but a Holst fan will lose interest in this disc before the Choral Folk Songs (6) at its end -- after all, how many superbly sung and lovingly performed part songs can any human being stand? -- anyone with an immortal soul should hear O Spiritual Pilgrim. There have been very few recordings of the part songs of Holst and none that can equal this 1993 recording by the Holst Singers directed by Stephen Layton. Whether it's the early Ave Maria, the evocative Two Eastern Pictures, the quaint This Have I Done for My True Love, or the transcendent O Spiritual Pilgrim, Layton and the Singers are equal to the music. And...
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