Swayne: Stabat mater

The four pieces on this disc span three decades of Giles Swayne’s choral music, their striking echoes of Latin plainchant, Tudor polyphony and traditional African music providing contrasting and complementary strands characteristic of this much-travelled composer. “The Dmitri Ensemble bring the work of this neglected master into focus for the first time and do so with virtuosic swagger.” John Rutter (Producer on this disc) Magnificat I draws on the music of the Senegalese Jola people and the Ba-Benezele of the Congo. Swayne’s moving threnody, The silent land, scored for 40-part chorus and solo cello, combines words from the Requiem Mass and Christina Rossetti’s poetry, while Stabat mater is dedicated to the grieving mothers of Israel and Palestine.