Choral Works CD reviews
BBC Music Magazine July 1998
(Performance ****, Sound ****):
‘Howard Goodall (b.1958) has scored brilliant success as a composer for film and television. Before that, he was a music scholar at Christ Church, Oxford, whose choir here certainly does him proud, with many instances fo very fine singing, especially from the boys in exposed sections, and fleeting passages for paired tenors and basses.
Goodall’s style may be easy on the ear, but his simple invention can work to inspired effect: the Kyrie, a Gloria with cavorting organ, the bell-like Sanctus and French-imbued Agnus Dei of his latin Missa Aedis Christi all include exquisite touches. At times the beauty cedes to a kind of updated Victoriana, whose mellifluous sentiment seems arguably at odds with the text…..but the best moments are to be savoured: In Memoriam Anne Frank is a longish, gentle setting of Christina Rossetti and others, the lilting Psalm 23 from the TV series The Vicar of Dibley is luanched by a fine boy solo. Goodall makes appealing use of string string quintet, as in the restrained anthem They were not here, and a wafting set of Canticles flows well. A disc, certainly, for those who enjoy their Tavener or John Rutter.’ (Roderic Dunnett)
‘A pleasant and varied CD‘ – 1 April, 2002 Reviewer: (chris@darbysingers.org.uk) from Telford, England:
” This CD features a range of choral music written by renowned TV composer Howard Goodall. Some of the tracks will be familiar to TV viewers as the themes of comedy programmes (Mr Bean & the Vicar of Dibley), but the music is well worth taking seriously. Goodall’s mass is also featured. The average Brit would probably be surprised at how many Goodall tunes he or she knows: these excellent recordings from the much under-rated ASV label demonstrate why his music is so widely used.”