Recordings

Recorded by the superb Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge, conductor Stephen Layton, the Hyperion label releases a CD of Cecilia McDowall’s sacred choral music on 2 April.

‘Cecilia McDowall and Peter Warlock were bright and joyful, each in their way paying homage to older traditions, texts echoing Latin or old English, and adding further to the sense of ritual and celebration resonating across the centuries.’
THE GUARDIAN

‘I’d not heard Cecilia McDowall’s I know that my Redeemer liveth before. It must have been a considerable challenge to set a text immortalised by Handel in Messiah but she was not daunted by the task and produced a piece that is beautiful and expertly crafted.’
MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

‘Works by Cecilia McDowall proclaim an instinctive understanding of the medium allied to the ability to speak directly to the listener and wholly without artifice.’   GRAMOPHONE

‘All the music is radiant, all of it is unexpected… and comes from a choir that’s gone from being a minor player in Oxbridge choral music to becoming one of the most exciting groups in its area’
GRAMOPHONE

‘Cecilia McDowall captures the mystery and fascination of the Shipping Forecast perfectly. Her music combined with the cadences of Sean Street’s poetry creates a wonderfully atmospheric choral work.’
AMAZON

‘All the music is radiant, all of it is unexpected… and comes from a choir that’s gone from being a minor player in Oxbridge choral music to becoming one of the most exciting groups in its area.’
GRAMOPHONE

‘The sonorous bass pedal which opens Cecilia McDowall’s O Oriens is illuminated from above by an aurora of shifting harmonies, creating shimmering waves of sound-light. It’s a truly magical setting of one of the Advent antiphons, and the precision and focus it received here enhanced its transcendental glow.’
OPERA TODAY

‘This could be the best contemporary choral release of the year.’
CROSS RHYTHMS

‘The entire sequence, wisely chosen and sung with the utmost expressiveness and skill, is a pure delight.’
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH

‘More substantial is Mein blaues Klavier, Cecilia McDowall taking the poem by Else Lasker-Schüler as inspiration for a forceful study with a plaintive lament as it core.’ 
GRAMOPHONE

In Buenos Aires, birthplace of the tango, there is an old tango hall called Salon Argentina. A faded sign hangs over the stage: ‘Salon Argentina – not just a place but somewhere to make friends.’ In the hall the dancers move under a dim light in grim, passionate embrace. In this homage to Piazzolla, the tango opens with an air of desolation and loneliness, but then gradually gathering itself into a dance of defiance.

Inspired by the intense imagery of Lorca’s poetry, The Moon Dances evokes contrasting aspects of dance. The first movement brings exuberance to a carnival atmosphere; in the second, the moon dances above the shadows that engulf the dead. In the last, the girl on the swing arcs across the sky, her dance shimmering beneath the moon.

‘. . .there is harmonic sensitivity in the way contrasting variants of both homophonic and polyphonic sections are built. Throughout the piece is that linear logic so much needed to make any music – but especially choral music – satisfying to perform.’  
CHOIR & ORGAN

‘This rousing, back-stiffening and celebratory recital features appropriately effusive and reflective pieces delivered with contrasting glee and gravitas…‘
CHOIR & ORGAN

‘It seems that every text McDowall touches turns to a golden composition full of warm dissonances and unexpected harmonic progressions.’
CHORAL JOURNAL 2011

‘Heartfelt advocacy in beautifully prepared and recorded performances.’ GRAMOPHONE

‘McDowalls lyrical gifts make her a natural carol writer . . . Now may we singen is more straightforward: a joyful dance with a medieval flavour thanks to punchy rhythms, vocal drones and parallel fourths and fifths.’
CHURCH MUSIC QUARTERLY

‘. . . a lovely new setting of Ave maris stella, tender in unaffected simplicity.’
THE SPECTATOR

‘. . . these diverse works add wonderfully to the repertoire and should help open up new horizons for concert promoters.’ 
MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

‘McDowalls lyrical gifts make her a natural carol writer. In her Christina Rossetti setting, Before the paling of the stars, the haunting melody, first emerging out of a mysterious organ texture, is given a variety of expressive treatment, ever growing in confidence as we hail the King of glory.’
CHURCH MUSIC QUARTERLY

‘…this sumptuous music where expressive highlighting of key words gleams like episodes in a Chagall window.’ 
CHOIR & ORGAN