Trinity Boys Choir, David Swinson - Refugium (2018)

Refugium is a wonderful collection of contemporary British choral music performed by Trinity Boys Choir under the direction of David Swinson. At its heart is the title work, Refugium, by Graham Lack. This seven-movement work uses texts by Petar Hektorovic, each chiselled into his palace walls in Croatia. Refugium is written for three separate 'islands' of percussion instruments, comprising those of ancient origin and those of more recent times. The combination of SATB choir, organ and percussion is both notable and interesting, and clearly represents a contemporary sound world. Continuing this theme, the rest of the programme combines the established with the new, with works by Jonathan Dove, Richard Wilberforce, Lewis Brito-Babapulle, Howard Moody, Tom Harrold, Judith Weir and John Tavener. The disc was recorded in Munich's Herz-Jesu-Kirche, with its beautiful acoustic and spectacular Woehl organ.
Effective as Refugium is, the outstanding performance on the disc has to be a riveting account of Jonathan Dove's Seek him that maketh the seven stars, while the most musically arresting is Tom Harrold's From Dreams for three-part boys choir and marimba a combination which works extraordinarily well in this high atmospheric and spiritually charged recording. --Gramophone, October'18