Richard Lambert: Choral Music, Sacred and Secular
The choral music of Richard Lambert, born in Bath in the English West Country in 1951, covers a wide range of expression, ranging on this album from straightforward SATB settings for church performance to a sardonic parody of the excesses of established religion. It also encompasses the timeless and the timely, with a number of contributions to the age-old tradition of Christmas music to a cantata inspired by the Covid pandemic.
This is the first recording of the Accordare Choir, founded and conducted by Karolina Csáthy, initially using former choral scholars of The Choir of Trinity College Cambridge; since then it has expanded in size, scope and accomplishment.
George Szirtes, narrator
Dominika Mak, piano
Adrian Bending, timpani
Donna Maria Landowski, percussion
Accordare Choir
Karolina Csáthy, director
Listen To This Recording:
- The Jackdaw of Rheims (1995/2018) (12:46)
- Prayer and Supplication (1979, rev. 2020) (9:20)
- Lord, Make us Instruments of Thy Peace (1993) (3:14)
A Christmas Sequence
- All was for an Apple (2020) (2:15)
- Herrick’s Carol (1995) (4:18)
- Hodie Christus natus est (2012) (2:44)
- O Magnum Mysterium (2012) (2:54)
- Away in a Manger (2009) (2:26)
- The Holly and the Ivy (2012) (3:30)
- There was Sweet Music (2019) (5:34)
- The Wind among the Reeds (2016-17) (10:03)
- …a plague o’ your houses (2021) (15:12)
First Recordings
BBC Radio 3 :
Kate Molleson and Yshani Perinpanayagam discussed this recording on Record Review on BBC Radio 3 on 30 December 2023:
‘YP: I really enjoy how […] those tonal bits which go via little scrunchy passing notes and there’s something really wonderful particularly about the piece we’ve just heard [The Wind among the Reeds] about just enjoying the resonance of voices, and I really love how he painted that gentle breeze at the beginning, […] he floats quite fluently through consonance and dissonance. It reminds me quite a lot like Rebecca Clarke, actually, in the approach to tonality and also those sparkling dissonance piano interjections where you just think: ‘Oh, that’s beautiful and magical and it’s evocative of some place that isn’t quite place of reality’, and I think the voices particularly in this area of repertoire on his disc really do that transcending reality.
KM: Yeah, I think in your notes you used the phrase ‘gently weird’, which I really liked, you know, saying that you know where it’s going to be going and then he’ll lead you astray a little bit. But it does sound like a music that feels gratifying in the voice to sing, I think.
YP: It does and it feels like it’s comes from years of working with voices and understanding what they enjoy doing and how they work together.
KM: And the choir, Accordare choir?
YP: They sound very beautiful […;] the experimental sounds, sounds really unified and really committed.’
—Kate Molleson and Yshani Perinpanayagam, BBC Radio 3
WTJU :
‘The collection presents a good overview of the composer’s style. Lambert has an engaging, accessible style. His music can be challenging, but it’s always playable and listenable. And those are the two elements of success in the world of choral music. […]
the carols are real standouts […]
Karolina Csáthy directs the Accordare Choir. They sing with feeling and precision’
—Ralph Graves, WTJU
Fanfare Magazine :
‘this new Lambert recording […] absolutely worth hearing.
All of the works on this album are finely crafted and beautifully written for the choral (as well as chamber-instrumental) forces deployed. […] the stylistic characteristics of the music never really sound like anyone else, and Lambert certainly has his own “voice” on this evidence. […]
All of the performances heard on this recording are outstanding. The choral singing is exemplary, and the small instrumental contributions also very fine. The audio quality is first-rate throughout. It seems that the Accordare Choir is quite a new group, and it and its director, Karolina Csáthy, are absolutely a team to watch out for. On this evidence they are right up there with the best, and this is an outstanding release.’
—William Kempster, Fanfare Magazine, July/Aug 2024