Joyful Company of Singers, Peter Broadbent, Finchley Children's Music Group, Grace Rossiter - Brian: Complete Choral Songs, Vol. 2 (2026) [Hi-Res]

Tracklist

01. Daybreak
02. Tell Me, Thou Soul of Her Love, Op. 13d
03. Stars of a Summer Night, Op. 1
04. In a Fairy Boat
05. Introit
06. Vital Spark of Heavenly Flame
07. A Child's Prayer
08. If I Had But Two Little Wings
09. Little White Lily
10. Tell Me, Where Is Fancy Bred
11. It Was a Lover and His Lass
12. Fairies' Song
13. Absence
14. Pack Clouds Away
15. Pastoral: The Shepherd
16. Infant Joy
17. The Lamb
18. Laughing Song
19. The Fairy Palace
20. Spring, the Sweet Spring
21. The Lost Doll
22. The Dream
23. The Echoing Green
24. The Moon
25. The River
26. The Mountain and the Squirrel
27. What Does Little Birdie Say?
28. Shall I Then Be Spared
29. O Happiness, Celestial Fair
30. Sweet Solitude
31. The Phantom Wooer
32. He Was a Rat

The reputation of Havergal Brian (1876–1972) as a late-blooming symphonist obscures the fact that he was an early-blooming composer of choral music for the huge market of amateur choirs thriving in Edwardian England. His choral songs range from simple unison settings for children’s or women’s voices to harmonically complex essays intended to tax the ability of groups taking part in the choral competitions once popular in regional Britain. This second selection includes four canons that Brian wrote in the early 1920s as contrapuntal studies for his mighty Gothic Symphony.

Joyful Company of Singers
Peter Broadbent, conductor
Finchley Children’s Music Group
Grace Rossiter, conductor