Casandra Clare

The Poor Clares of Arundel are 23 women living in a modest convent in the Sussex countryside. The original isolators share music that brings peace and reflection to everyday lives. Going back to the very roots of mindfulness, this album offers a window of escape from the stresses of the modern world. Unaccompanied plainchant married with subtle production creates relaxing, meditative music designed to bring an authentic spiritual experience to everyday life.

Hélène de Montgeroult (1764-1836) was a French composer and pianist who lived an extraordinary life. Though only 8 years younger than Mozart, she wrote in an early Romantic style that was decades ahead of her time, leading her biographer, Jérôme Dorival, to describe her as "the missing link between Mozart and Chopin".

In memory of the faithful departed. Graham Ross directs the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge in a programme of English and Spanish music for the Feasts of All Saints and All Souls, culminating in Tomás Luis de Victoria's last published work, his six-part 1605 Requiem, regarded by many as one of the finest works of the Spanish Renaissance.

The familiar hymn Veni Emmanuel is emblematic of the Advent season: a period of reflection upon the meaning of Christ's coming. Framing this programme, the hymn paraphrases the great "O" Antiphons (plainchant settings traditionally sung on the days leading up to Christmas), complemented here by later works echoing their rich imagery and symbolism.

It may seem a little perverse to open this review by bypassing the headline event (Britten's A Ceremony of Carols) in favour of its surrounding programme of early twentieth century carols and short choral works, but the latter are so very enjoyable that I'm almost of the opinion that they're where this programme's true gold lies.

It might come as no surprise that the ethereal sound of nuns’ traditional plainchant has resonated with listeners across the globe in 2020, with many of us in need of a beautiful moment of music amid rather turbulent times.

Graham Ross et le Choeur du Clare College de Cambridge célèbrent la fête de l'Épiphanie et la venue des Rois mages au fil de sublimes pages du répertoire, du seizième siècle jusqu'au chef-d'oeuvre a cappella d'Arnold Bax : Mater ora filium (1926).

Icelandic music of the last half century is the focus of this recording by the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge, led by its conductor, Graham Ross. Born from his close collaboration with the native composers of the “Land of Fire and Ice,” this programme sets out to explore and highlight their hypnotic soundworld, instinctively leaning towards contemplation. A prime example is the touchingly beautiful Requiem by Sigurður Sævarsson, which here receives its world premiere recording.

The Feast of the Ascension, celebrated on the 40th day of Easter, is one of the chief feasts of the Christian year, in which the resurrected Jesus was taken up to Heaven in the presence of eleven of his disciples. The Feast of Pentecost, which falls ten days after Ascension seven Sundays (50 days, hence the name) after Easter Sunday commemorates in the Christian church the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles. Both feasts are rich in imagery and in musical material. Many of the Ascensiontide works in this programme set all or parts of psalm 47, whose fifth verse begins God is gone up with a merry noise .