Bravo to David Hill, the Bach Choir and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra for bringing three neglected large-scale works by Charles Villiers Stanford to wider attention in this excellent recording. The operatic Stabat Mater is Wagnerian in ambition, and with two purely orchestral movements feels something like a choral symphony. The impressive Song to the Soul, unpublished until Stanford authority Jeremy Dibble produced a performing score two years ago, makes a fine companion to the composer’s first major choral work, The Resurrection, though as a former conductor of the Bach Choir, Stanford might have been disappointed in some occasional intonation slips. Clean-toned soprano Elizabeth Cragg stands out among the soloists.
