Stephen Hough's recording of Saint-Saëns' piano concertos comes as no surprise: he is our leading champion of once-lost pianistic causes--Scharwenka, Sauer and Mompou being among the composers he has brilliantly committed to disc. For all his fame, Saint-Saëns is a harder cause to champion than any of the above, since his music really is at times mere padding. But what those who deride him fail to ...
One of the most gifted composers of his generation, Herbert Howells (1892-1983) once observed how "all through my life I've had this strange feeling that I somehow belonged to the Tudor period"; you can hear something of this deep-rooted quality in his sublime Christmas anthem of 1940, Long, Long Ago. If the incredibly moving motet Take Him, Earth, For Cherishing (written in 1963 for ...