This recording of North American music of the last fifty or so years includes music by a Russian, Igor Stravinsky. His origins notwithstanding, he is one of the ‘grand old men’ of twentieth-century American music, having become an American citizen in the early 1940s, shortly before writing his Mass for choir and double wind quintet. The recording ends with a spritual, arranged by one of Britain’s most eminent twentieth-century composers—a sort of compliment to the American tradition from the other side of the pond. The rest of the music speaks for itself, with an inimitable American accent from beginning to end.

Adolphus Hailstork
1     The Song of Deborah

Aaron Copland
2     In the beginning
       Katherine Bond - mezzo-soprano

Libby Larsen
3     I will sing and raise a psalm

Morten Lauridsen
4     O magnum mysterium

Ned Rorem
5     O Deus, ego amo te

6     Oratio patris condren: O Jesu vivens in Maria

7     Thee, God, I come from

Charles Ives
8     Psalm 67 (God be merciful unto us...)

Igor Stravinsky
9     The dove descending

10-14  Mass for choir and double wind quintet

Michael Tippett
15  Steal away - from A Child of our time

Total Playing time: 67'50''   DDD
Recorded in the Chapel of New College Oxford, 11-15 July 2005
Released 2006
AV 2086

"...the performances all testify to the exceptionally high standards Edward Higginbottom has maintained at New College over the past 30 years."

BBC Music Magazine

"Copland's In the beginning is a stern test for any choir in a live performance...This recording is an amazing tour de force—intonation spot-on, effortless high As from the boys and finally a B flat, all superbly delivered. This CD is well worth having for this refreshingly affirmative evocation of the Creation alone."

The Gramophone