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A Walk with Ivor Gurney

A Walk with Ivor Gurney

Tenebrae and Nigel Short are joined by Aurora Orchestra together with mezzo-soprano Dame Sarah Connolly and narrator Simon Callow for A Walk with Ivor Gurney, an album celebrating the music of Ivor Gurney whose promising career as a composer was interrupted by World War I. Alongside four pieces of Gurney’s own music are works by his contemporaries, Ralph Vaughan Williams and Herbert Howells. The recording features a new piece by Judith Bingham commissioned by Tenebrae in 2013 for the choir with Dame Sarah Connolly.

A nourishing, thoughtfully compiled release… On this premiere recording, Sarah Connolly teams up with Tenebrae under Nigel Short’s watchful lead to give a performance of breathtaking composure, spine-tingling atmosphere and palpable conviction.

–  Gramophone Magazine
  • Release Date: 19 October 2018
  • Record Label: Signum
  • Catalogue Number: SIGCD557
  • Location of Recording: St Giles-without-Cripplegate, London
  • Total Running Time: 01:27:23
  • View/Download Liner Notes

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You have the option to purchase the physical CD for delivery, or download the full recording or individual tracks, in a choice of audio formats.

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Individual Tracks

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Buy # Title Composer Duration Price Listen
1Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas TallisRalph Vaughan Williams14:16£ Listen
2Like as the HartHerbert Howells07:09£ Listen
3Since I believe in God the Father AlmightyIvor Gurney05:49£ Listen
4A Walk With Ivor GurneyJudith Bingham12:15£ Listen
5By a BiersideIvor Gurney04:28£ Listen
6In FlandersIvor Gurney03:15£ Listen
7SleepIvor Gurney03:32£ Listen
8An Oxford ElegyRalph Vaughan Williams22:51£ Listen
9Valiant for TruthRalph Vaughan Williams05:24£ Listen
10Lord thou hast been our refugeRalph Vaughan Williams08:18£ Listen

A nourishing, thoughtfully compiled release… On this premiere recording, Sarah Connolly teams up with Tenebrae under Nigel Short’s watchful lead to give a performance of breathtaking composure, spine-tingling atmosphere and palpable conviction.

–  Gramophone Magazine

…radiant playing from the Aurora Orchestra, opening the set with an austerely beautiful reading of Vaughan Williams’s Tallis Fantasia under Nigel Short.

–  The Arts Desk

Nigel Short’s peerless Tenebrae singers, backed by the Aurora Orchestra, offer nothing but sorrowful beauty and multiple reasons to give thanks.

–  The Times

Throughout this disc the singing of Tenebrae confirms their stature as one of the UK’s premier chamber choirs. Nigel Short has clearly prepared them for these assignments with great thoroughness and he conducts the programme with evident empathy. The contributions of the Aurora orchestra are excellent too. The technical aspects of the production were in the expert hands of producer Nicholas Parker and engineer Mike Hatch. They’ve done a fine job. The icing on the cake comes in the shape of Philip Lancaster’s outstanding booklet essay which is not only highly informative but also draws the threads of the programme together most successfully.

This imaginatively conceived and superbly executed programme is a wonderful way to honour one of the most tragic figures in twentieth-century British music. Tenebrae have done the memory of Ivor Gurney proud.

–  MusicWeb International

The disc’s title is from an extended piece for soloist and choir by Judith Bingham, commissioned by Tenebrae in 2013 and superbly sung by this top vocal ensemble. This is an album of riches.

–  Fiona Maddocks, The Observer

Stunning singing from Connolly and Tenebrae… It’s a really well-conceived programme. The recording offers a perfect ambient halo: dark and resonant.

–  Andrew McGregor, BBC Radio 3 Record Review

Recording of the Month, MusicWeb International (October 2018)

News

‘A Walk with Ivor Gurney’ Appeal Launch

8 March 2018

Donate Here We need your help to support Tenebrae’s next recording project – A Walk with Ivor Gurney – for release on Signum Classics. This exciting project also features the Aurora Orchestra, Dame Sarah Connolly (mezzo soprano) and Simon Callow (narrator). About the Recording A Walk with Ivor Gurney is a piece by Judith Bingham… continued

News

‘A Walk with Ivor Gurney’ Appeal – Target Reached!

19 April 2018

We’re thrilled to announce that over 6 weeks of fundraising, we have raised over double our initial target of £5,000 to reach a total of £10,060 raised towards our Ivor Gurney project. This money will be spent finishing the recording of the album with Aurora Orchestra, Dame Sarah Connolly and Simon Callow. The album is… continued

News

A Walk with Ivor Gurney is released!

19 October 2018

We are very proud to share that our newest release, A Walk with Ivor Gurney, celebrating the music of Ivor Gurney and his contemporaries, has now been released. The disc also features the premiere recording of Judith Bingham’s A Walk with Ivor Gurney, a piece we commissioned and premiered in 2013. We successfully raised the funding… continued

News

USA Tour November 2019

1 August 2019

We’re very excited to announce that Tenebrae will be returning to the United States for an extensive tour in November 2019. We will be visiting the University of Georgia in Athens, GA; Charleston; Duke University in Durham, NC; University of Maryland, MD; Chicago; St Louis; Dallas; Brigham Young University, UT; Los Angeles and Ashland, OR…. continued

Blogs

Guest Blog: Martha McLorinan

30 August 2018

I first discovered the music of Ivor Gurney when I was in my first year at music college and heard Sleep performed in a lunchtime recital. I immediately fell in love with the piece. I remember thinking that it was utterly perfect, and heading straight to the library to discover more of his songs, various… continued

Blogs

Now is the month of maying…

3 June 2019

Here’s a round up of all we’ve been up to in a busy May this year. We started the month with a day of rehearsals for both the programmes we would be taking away on tour, and then straight on to Sherborne Abbey for our first concert on 4th May. This building is absolutely beautiful,… continued

USA Tour 2019

Let’s do the Charleston!

12 November 2019

Welcome to the second blog of this tour, coming to you from the coach somewhere between Charleston SC and Durham NC. It’s currently day 4 of my first tour to the US with Tenebrae and so far so good! Yesterday we were in the beautiful Charleston with gorgeous sunny weather and great food. We arrived… continued

USA Tour 2019

Malvin McLorinan

15 November 2019

By the time we arrived in Maryland, we’d clocked up eighteen hours of coach travel. This has been a really civilised way to start the tour. It’s nice not to be rushing around airports, and to be able to look out of the window and see a bit of the country as we travel. The… continued

USA Tour 2019

Meet me in St Louis

18 November 2019

We’ve made it to day 8 and concert 6 of our USA tour and we have officially passed the halfway point. St. Louis was the first place on this tour that I was returning to after coming in March 2018 and I had mixed memories of the place. On one hand I remembered the fantastic… continued

USA Tour 2019

Dallas to Provo

20 November 2019

Any day which begins with an 05:00 alarm is met with some trepidation by singers. Couple that with the previous evening’s post-concert reception and there were some groggy heads on the early morning bus to St Louis airport. We flew back to Chicago before catching a flight to Dallas. Upon arrival at the hotel, many… continued

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