Tenebrae join the Aurora Orchestra with mezzo soprano Dame Sarah Connolly and narrator Simon Callow for ‘A Walk with Ivor Gurney’, an album of choral music celebrating the works 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.
★★★★★ The Mail Online
Performance ★★★★ Recording ★★★★ Beautifully sung by Nigel Short’s Tenebrae – BBC Music Magazine
Orchestra and wordless choir combining to ravishing effect – 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
A nourishing, thoughtfully compiled release – Gramophone
The remarkably imaginative concept of this release reveals Signum as a most innovative company – Cathedral Music
The orchestra marvellously supportive and Tenebrae exemplary – Classical Source
[Dame Sarah Connolly] brings a great warmth here, vocally but also in terms of her response to the poetry – BBC Radio 3 Record Review
Throughout this disc the singing of Tenebrae confirms their stature as one of the UK’s premier chamber choirs […] Tenebrae have done the memory of Ivor Gurney proud – MusicWeb International