Herbert Howells (1892–1983)

2/5. Love and Despair

The loss of his nine-year-old son Michael to a sudden illness in 1935 cast a lifelong shadow across Howells's music. Donald Macleod explores how music became a release valve for the bereft composer and we also hear Howells's own thoughts on one of the works directly inspired by his son's death.

The Chosen Tune
Margaret Fingerhut (piano)

Sing Lullaby
Polyphony
Stephen Layton (conductor)

Green Ways: Under the greenwood tree; Wanderer's Night Song; On the merry first of May
Yvonne Kenny (soprano)
London Symphony Orchestra
Richard Hickox (conductor)

All my hope on God is founded
John Rutter (descant)
Philip Scriven (organ)
Winchester Cathedral Choir
David Hill (director)

Requiem (1st mvt)
Corydon Singers
Matthew Best (conductor)

De profundis (Psalm Prelude Set 2 No 1)
Stephen Cleobury (organ of King's College, Cambridge)

Concerto for Strings (final mvt)
City of London Sinfonia
Richard Hickox (conductor)

Magnificat (St Paul's Service)
Choir of St Paul's Cathedral
Christopher Dearnley (organ)
John Scott (conductor). Show less