Album: Tenebrae, Hubert Parry: Songs of Farewell (Signum Classics)

Having previously been hailed for their recordings of French and Renaissance choral works, Nigel Short's Tenebrae now turn their attention to their native British commemorative partsongs and choral works, the centrepiece provided by Hubert Parry's six-part motet suite "Songs of Farewell".

Best known as the composer of "Jerusalem", Parry's genius is best represented here by the lengthy finale "Lord, let me know mine end", a tour-de-force of feather-light, eight-part polyphony. Richard Rodney Bennett and Herbert Howells contribute tributes to Linda McCartney and John F Kennedy respectively, while elsewhere John Tavener's "Funeral Ikos" evokes a certain monkish resignation and calm.

DOWNLOAD THIS: The Evening-Watch; Funeral Ikos; Lord, let me know mine end