Truro Cathedral Choir - Secular Requiem (2022)

In the largest project ever undertaken by an English cathedral choir, the Choir of Truro Cathedral, under their director, Christopher Gray, joins with the full forces of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales to present the first recording of Cornish composer, Russell Pascoe’s monumental Secular Requiem. This large-scale choral and orchestral work sets moving non-religious and philosophical texts by many authors from John Donne and Thomas Moore to Dylan Thomas and Walt Whitman, selected by Anthony Pinching who contributes the text to the final movement, Seasons. They cover the entire gamut of human emotions from death and desolation through hope and humour to consolation and peace. Russell’s Pascoe’s imaginative and inventive score reveals an unique voice with a great melodic gift and an instinctive response to word- settng, together with a masterful command of orchestral sonorities. The work also includes two extensive vocal solos, sung by internationally-renowned artists, Catherine Wyn-Rogers and Julien Van Mellaerts. Threnody for Jowan was composed in response to the tragic death of the newborn child of a friend, with text by journalist, Richard Madden, who was a guest of the composer at the time. A Sequence for Remembrance, written in 2018 to mark 100 years since the end of the First World War, alternates string interludes with a capella choir movements settng texts by Anthony Pinching.