Hymn to St Cecilia. Choral Dances from Gloriana. Five Flower Songs

Britten, a capella
Having dazzled the critics (Choc de Classica, the German Record Critics’ Award) some 16 years earlier with its label debut featuring best-loved twentieth-century English a capella works, the members of RIAS Kammerchor revisit one of their favourite composers, Benjamin Britten – this time, under the direction of the choir’s new chief conductor, Justin Doyle. A perfect occasion to discover his new reading of the composer’s enchanting setting of poems written in honour of the patron saint of musicians by W.H. Auden (he would later rename them “Anthem for St. Cecilia’s Day [for Benjamin Britten]”), alongside other choral settings comprising this glorious album entirely devoted to Britain’s greatest twentieth-century composer.