New music on Delphian

Ascension

Choir of St Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh

Matthew Owens conductor & solo organ

DCD34017

The powerful imagery of the Ascension has been a potent inspiration to generations of composers. This recording presents a Choral Evensong of contemporary works associated with St Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh, leading up to Messiaen’s meditative organ work L’Ascension. The disc features premiere recordings of works by James MacMillan and Richard Allain.

‘A shining service of contemporary works … The choir sings with tremendous fervour, clarity, and power’ – Gramophone, February 2004

2000 Nails: contemporary works for solo organ

Michael Bonaventure organ world premiere recordings

DCD34013

Bonaventure’s longstanding position as proponent of new music for the organ is recognised here, on disc, for the first time. Composers featured are Avril Anderson, Lyell Cresswell, Eddie McGuire, Ian McQueen, Peter Nelson, Judith Weir and Bonaventure himself.

‘This fine player has commissioned more than 50 works in 25 years. Here are eight of them, recorded on the organ of Edinburgh University’s McEwan Hall – at once meditative and turbulent.’ – The Sunday Times, May 2005

Sir Peter Maxwell Davies: O magnum mysterium

Choir of St Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh / Matthew Owens

Michael Bonaventure solo organ

DCD34037

In the 1960s few would have predicted that Peter Maxwell Davies would eventually write a set of Evening Canticles; yet religious texts have always been of fundamental importance to the composer, as this disc vividly demonstrates by bringing together sacred masterworks from both ends of his career – tough, uncompromising and of surpassing beauty.

’boldly sculpted conceptions … The Edinburgh choristers, well trained by Matthew Owens, make light of the music’s demands, and the recordings couple abundant atmosphere with a fair degree of natural clarity’ – Gramophone, Awards issue 2006

Howard Skempton: Choral

Music

and Songs

The Exon Singers / Matthew Owens

Beth Mackay, Bartholomew Lawrence

DCD34056

Best known as a composer of exquisitely quirky miniatures for his own instruments, the piano and accordion, Howard Skempton has in recent years developed an equally strong affinity for the choral medium. The Exon Singers’ programme includes a new Missa brevis composed especially for the recording, as well as the Magnificat & Nunc dimittis which Skempton wrote for Matthew Owens’ Edinburgh choristers.

’beautifully recorded and performed’ – The Scotsman, September 2008