Goodall, H: The Lord Is My Shepherd (Psalm 23) (Theme from 'The Vicar of Dibley')

Howard Goodall’s new album Inspired features new and re-arranged works by the British composer. Included on this release is a new 10 track work called ‘Every Purpose Under The Heavens’ which is being billed as the 20th century Handel Messiah. Also featured are favourite TV themes including Blackadder, Red Dwarf and the Vicar of Dibley. Inspired also features classical stars such as Noah, Laura Wright and Craig Ogden.

EMI Classics is proud to release Eternal Light: A Requiem, a new work by the award-winning British composer and internationally acclaimed broadcaster, Howard Goodall. Goodall’s unusual setting of the liturgical service is performed by Christ Church Cathedral Choir, Oxford and London Musici conducted by Stephen Darlington with soloists Natasha Marsh, Alfie Boe and Christopher Maltman.

The writing of a Requiem is a special challenge for any composer. The great Requiems of the past by composers such as Mozart, Verdi, Fauré and Duruflé interpret the sacred Requiem text literally, and represent a prayer for the salvation of the departed soul(s). Howard Goodall’s Requiem, by contrast, is intended to provide solace to the grieving. The composer said, “For me, a modern Requiem is one that acknowledges the terrible, unbearable loss and emptiness that accompanies the death of loved ones, a loss that is not easily ameliorated with platitudes about the joy awaiting us in the afterlife. … Musical expression can I hope provide some outlet, some reflection, some transportation, even some comfort….This was to be a Requiem for the living, a Requiem focussing on interrupted lives.”

Eternal Light: A Requiem is also distinguished by the inclusion of English poetry, mixed with fragments of Latin, sung simultaneously or antiphonally between the soloists and the choir. Goodall explains, “One section of Latin text comes not from the Requiem mass but from the Book of Revelation, with its description of the coming of the Angels of the Apocalypse. The Recordare movement combines with Phineas Fletcher’s early-17th century sacred verse Drop, drop, slow tears. Other texts are drawn from John McCrae, Francis Quarles, Mary Elizabeth Frye and Ann Thorp.”

Commissioned by Mark Stephenson on behalf of London Musici to celebrate the orchestra’s 20th anniversary, Eternal Light: A Requiem is a stand-alone choral work that will have its London premiere in November 2008 in an exciting collaborative version for choir, soloists, orchestra and dance. The dance, Eternal Light, commissioned by Sadler’s Wells Theatre, will be performed by Rambert Dance Company, its associate orchestra London Musici and Christ Church Cathedral Choir, Oxford. Rambert Dance Company and its artistic director, Mark Baldwin, worked closely with Howard Goodall from the conception of the project to find ways in which the themes of the Requiem might be explored further in dance.

The result of this collaboration is a work that should appeal to a broad-based audience. Following the premiere, Rambert Dance Company will tour Eternal Light nationally across the UK. Over seventy dates have already been confirmed, including the London premiere, which will take place at Sadler’s Wells on Armistice Day (November 11), the 90th anniversary of the end of World War I.

And, as the composer said recently, “although it was not deliberately conceived thus, it is powerfully appropriate that the central Dies Irae movement takes as its vision of hell the horror of armed conflict. Alongside the Latin text phrases I have juxtaposed John McCrae’s haunting war poem In Flanders Fields. McCrae, a Canadian military doctor of great distinction, died on the Western Front in January 1918.”

Three other choral works by Howard Goodall are also included in this CD: his setting of Psalm 23, well known as the them tune of the BBC’s Vicar of Dibley series; Love Divine, a hymn of praise set to Charles Wesley’s reassuring, open-hearted words; and, finally, Goodall’s setting of Spared, Wendy Cope’s poem capturing the feelings of many people following the destruction of the World Trade Center in New York on September 11, 2001. “[The work] acts, I hope, as a fitting companion to Eternal Light: A Requiem.”

Northern Sinfonia, conducted by Simon Halsey and joined by the amassed Newcastle-based choirs Northern Sinfonia Chorus and youth choir Quay Voices, ring in the holiday season with ‘Rejoice! Christmas at The Sage Gateshead’, a festive live recording featuring traditional carols, popular tunes and modern favourites.

Ring in the season with ‘Rejoice! Christmas at The Sage Gateshead’, with resident orchestra Northern Sinfonia conducted by Simon Halsey and joined by the amassed Newcastle-based choirs Northern Sinfonia Chorus and youth choir Quay Voices. This festive live recording features something for everyone – traditional carols such as The First Nowell, Hark! The Herald Angels Sing and O Come All Ye Faithful, popular tunes including Sleigh Ride and Jingle Bells, and modern favourites such as Howard Goodall’s The Lord is my Shepherd – making it the perfect stocking filler for far-flung family and friends.

The definitive sound of British Choral music will be sure to resonate through the Nation this forthcoming May bank holiday. This stunning 2CD compilation is filled with some of the most evocative and iconic British music ever composed.

Drawn from the catalogues of Decca Classics, Deutsche Grammophon and Decca Records, this TV advertised compilation includes performances from a variety of the world's leading choirs and ensembles: Westminster Abbey Choir, Christ Church Cathedral Choir under Stephen Darlington, New College Choir under Edward Higginbottom, and with such orchestras as the London Symphony Orchestra and Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Star performances come from Kiri Te Kanawa, All Angels, and many more.

Few choirs in the world today offer greater precision, musicianship and sheer beauty of sound than The Sixteen. This collection offers the great anthems of English Choral Music over the past 100 years, part of the Cathedral Music tradition which (alongside the Anglican Hymn) is widely considered England’s greatest single contribution to music before The Beatles!

An album which could lead many to discover a whole new world of music, aided by performances of radiant beauty from Harry Christophers and The Sixteen.

The latest release from Wells Cathedral Choir, directed by Matthew Owens – judged by an international panel of leading critics in Gramophone January 2011 the No. 1 choir for children and No. 6 in the world's best choirs.

The choir’s fourth recording with Regent Records.

An uplifting and inspiring collection of great choral music sung in the radiant acoustic of Wells Cathedral.

Includes favourite works by John Rutter, Howard Goodall (including ‘The Vicar of Dibley’), Handel and Vivaldi.

Sold in support of the work of St Margaret’s Hospice, Somerset – one of the largest charitable organizations working in Somerset and parts of neighbouring counties to provide care to those who have a terminal or life-limiting illness – www.somerset-hospice.org.uk

Following the success of Howard Goodall’s Enchanted Voices (the best selling specialist classical album of 2009, Gramophone Award winner, and nominated for the NS&I Album of the Year Classical BRIT Award 2010) and the Christmas album Enchanted Carols, the celebrated british composer returns with a new album called Pelican in the Wilderness, released through Classic FM Records. This amazing new release is again fronted by his extraordinary female choral group Enchanted Voices (who will perform at this year’s Classical BRIT Awards, ITV1 16th May) and also features The Tippett Quartet, who provide a lush string soundscape around the stunning ethereal vocals. The album is a collection of newly arranged Psalms, including By The Waters Of Babylon and a new arrangement of his world famous Psalm 23: The Lord Is My Shepherd. The title, Pelican in the Wilderness takes its name from a line in Psalm 102.

After thirty years of world-wide performance and recording, The Sixteen, "The Voices of Classic FM", are recognised as one of the world’s greatest ensembles. Comprising both choir and period instrument orchestra, The Sixteen's total commitment to the music it performs is its greatest distinction. Its special reputation for performing early English polyphony, masterpieces of the Renaissance, bringing fresh insights into Baroque and early Classical music and a diversity of twentieth century music, is drawn from the passions of conductor and founder, Harry Christophers.

The Sixteen has recently featured in the highly successful BBC Four television series, Sacred Music, presented by actor Simon Russell Beale.

The Sixteen’s album IKON was nominated for a 2007 Grammy.

A New Heaven narrows the gap between our secular age and a time when the Anglican Church was among the most important patrons and consumers of British music. It also offers listeners the chance to reconnect with spiritual matters richly expressed by composers with the flair and imagination required to distil big issues of life and death into miniature forms.