When first thine eies unveil: Choral Music by Herbert Howells

This recording brings together for the first time Howells' complete extant Latin church music for Westminster Cathedral, composed when he was a student of Stanford at the RCM. It also features other significant rarely (if ever) heard music, including a first recording of the extraordinary Holst-like anthem When first thine eies unveil which was written at the same time as Mine eyes for beauty pine. It also includes for the first time another pairing, Walking in the Snow with Long, Long Ago written for George Guest's Lady Margaret Singers in Cambridge. Additionally, there is another premiere, Levavi oculos, Paul Spicer's reconstruction of a wedding anthem for Hereford Cathedral, and Howells' lovely arrangement of the Sussex Mummers' Carol: O Mortal Man. The disc ends with one of Howells' last motets: the ferocious and challenging Antiphon, setting George Herbert's famous words 'Let all the world'.

This is the third recording in a continuing collaboration between SOMM and Paul Spicer's Birmingham Conservatoire Chamber Choir, which continues to yield many riches. "everything in this finely executed disc is worth hearing,and the final track, the well-known (or it ought to be) My heart in thine, is as moving as ever." (Stanford Partsongs SOMM0128) Piers Burton-Page, International Record Review