Clare College Choir, founded in 1971, set the gold standard for mixed collegiate choirs and maintains its prowess in this disc of Easter music. Composers span five centuries, from Lassus and Taverner to Vaughan Williams, Patrick Hadley (1899-1973) and Matthew Martin (born 1976). Martin’s new setting of Haec dies, ear-catching and spirited, receives its world-premiere recording. Rachmaninov’s Dnes’ spaseniye (Today salvation has come), from his All-night Vigil, has a dark resonance, complemented by the full harmonies of Samuel Wesley’s Blessed be God and Father. Palestrina’s Terra tremuit sounds slightly out of kilter, but Dic nobis Maria by the Venetian Giovanni Bassano (1561-1617) goes with a real swing and might have been composed yesterday.
