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Digital download
- Jonathan Dove
The Passing of the Year (2000)
- Peters Edition Limited (World)
Original version commissioned by the London Symphony Chorus. New version for double chorus, two pianos and percussion, commissioned for the 200th anniversary of Edition Peters. Original version first performed 18 March 2000, Barbican Centre, London Symphony Chorus conducted by Stephen Westrop.
- chch; pf
- chch; 4perc/2pf
- chch
- 20 min
- Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Emily Dickinson, George Peele, Thomas Nashe and William Blake
- English
- 5th July 2025, St John the Baptist, Holland Road, London, United Kingdom
Programme Note
© DOVE The Passing of the Year (gramophone.co.uk):
The major work on the disc, composed in memory of the composer’s mother, is The Passing of the Year (2000). This sets seven texts, including poetry by Blake, Dickinson and Tennyson, the latter’s ‘Ring out, wild bells’ being given a suitably wintry treatment. The combination of double chorus and piano (with Christopher Cromar providing solidly satisfying support) offers a wealth of textural and dramatic possibilities, most – if not all – of which are eagerly grasped by the composer. There are a few rough edges, including one major discomfort caused by a lapse in intonation, put into sharp relief by the fixed pitch of the piano, which could have benefited from another take. However, this is a major work which deserves to become a choral repertory mainstay.
Media
Scores
Reviews
"This will turn out to be, I am sure, one of my favorite recordings of 2012...Dove receives the strongest advocacy from his performers. The Convivium Singers...display admirable control of the long line and excellent intonation...I urge you to purchase this CD as quickly as possible. It is gorgeous and poignant music, performed with wholehearted fervor by an excellent choir."
"The Convivium Singers are are a 30-strong mixed-voice group, formed in 2009, youthfully fresh-toned and evenly balanced. They tackle Dove's distinctive and vivid setting with great vigour and a sense of purpose...This is an enjoyable disc of approachable choral music by a master of choral writing."
"[The Passing of the Year] is beautifully conceived music soaring to a glorious, bright climax in this fine performance by the 30-voice Convivium Singers...Who Killed Cock Robin?, by contrast, is exuberantly entertaining, and the Convivium Singers rise enthusiastically to the virtuoso demands of its writing."
"An intermittently beautiful setting for chorus and piano of Emily Dickinson’s poetry"
Discography
The Passing of the Year
- LabelVoktett Hannover
- ConductorYoonjee Kim
- EnsembleVoktett Hannover
- Released30th June 2024
Songs of Renewal
- LabelSOMM Recordings
- ConductorBenjamin Goodson
- EnsembleBath Camerata / Huw Watkins (piano)
- Released15th March 2019
Equinox
- LabelVCM Records
- EnsembleVOCES8
- Released19th January 2018
Dove: The Passing of the Year
- LabelNAXOS
- ConductorNeil Ferris
- EnsembleConvivium Singers / Christopher Cromar (piano)
- Released6th March 2012
Les Chansons des Roses
- LabelConvivium Records
- Catalogue NumberCR101
- EnsembleJervaulx Singers
- SoloistCharlie Gower-Smith, Alison Frances Gill