The Gabrieli’s latest themed CD, beautifully produced in all respects, celebrates the concision and intensity of 20th-century British part songs, from Elgar and Warlock to James MacMillan and Jonathan Dove, from the stark (Grainger’s The Three Ravens) to the ethereal (Vaughan Williams’s Rest). The opening song, Stanford’s The Blue Bird, uses a group of sopranos on the top line – apparently as the composer intended – instead of the usual soloist. The effect is arresting, and typical of the attention to text and score demonstrated by Paul McCreesh and his singers in each of these songs. Probably best in small doses. These miniatures are rich, each in need of proper savouring.
