Apollo5 - Where All Roses Go, EP Vol. 2 (2020) [Hi-Res]

To mark the tenth Anniversary of Apollo5 the group has recorded 3 digital EPs which will form the album “Where All Roses Go”. The group released the first volume on the 24th April. The second volume will be released on the 13th November 2020.

The whole album explores that most complex human emotion: love.
Love has many different manifestations. It is a rich tapestry intricately woven with conflicting strands: life and loss; beauty and mortality; brave romance and fragility in rejection; the steadfast devotion of a mother’s love (heightened by the awareness of inevitable separation); and in the Christian narrative the Virgin Mary and the eventual ultimate sacrifice.

Released at the time when we remember those who have sacrificed all in the pursuit of peace, this second EP reflects on love with an air of nostalgia and solemnity. Where all Roses Go by Michael McGlynn, is a poignant reminder of man’s ultimate insignificance and eventual return to nature. As if in response, Music when Soft Voices Die set by Taylor Scott Davis, describes human love continuing beyond death. Francis Poulenc’s Salve Regina then exudes deep devotion and a mother’s love. Why Fum’th in Fight, the psalm by Thomas Tallis, is a brief flash of fierce faithfulness portraying betrayal against God, which melts into the contrasting but related Lost Innocence by Paul Smith – a fragile exploration of lost love, lost childhood, and what this means. The Last Rose of Summer, arranged by Fraser Wilson, reassures us that true love lasts beyond the changing seasons.

The cover artwork and title refer to that most potent symbol of love and its transience: the rose. Apollo5 explores this idea through a varied collection of repertoire spanning 500 years and several musical styles. The album will include works by composers as broad-ranging as Josquin des Prez, Francisco Guerrero, Eric Whitacre, John Taverner, Claude Debussy, Francis Poulenc, Gerald Finzi and Michael McGlynn. The album will also feature arrangements written especially for Apollo5 and several new commissions from contemporary composers such as David Fawcett, Paul Smith, Taylor Davis and Fraser Wilson.
Apollo5 unites this diverse collection of choral music, from some of the earliest known polyphonic writing through to new compositions, in an energetic exploration of the joy and despair of human love.