Reviewed by Steven Whitehead

This is the debut recording of Stephen Shellard's Proteus Ensemble, released to coincide with a performance at the 2014 Three Choirs Festival in Worcester Cathedral. The theme commemorates the First World War and comprises an interesting and moving mix of spoken word and choral music. The readings are shared between the Dean of Worcester, Peter Atkinson, and actress Gabrielle Bullock. We open with Ecclesiastes Chapter Three, read not sung. This moves seamlessly into an organ solo, Parry's "Elegy" played by Christopher Allsop and then on to the second reading, Ivor Gurney's "To His Love". Only then do we meet the 16-strong choir with the first of extracts from "Messe Pour Notre-Dame" by David Briggs. The Ensemble rise to the challenge most creditably, Allsop's accompaniment is superb and Shellard and Bullock, who had the bright idea of interspersing the Mass throughout the recording, are to be commended as this keeps the programme in balance. After the aforementioned "Kyrie" from "Notre-Dame" we hear the first of two pieces by John Tavener, "Exhortation (They Shall Not Grow Old)" which is followed by a reading of Edith Sitwell's haunting "Still Falls The Rain". There is much more - 66 minutes worth - but I hope this gives a flavour: well chosen (and well read) poems with appropriate and often deeply moving music. Even in its segmented form the Mass dominates the sung part of the sequence but everything fits together most excellently. The closing triptych of "Jesus, Dulcis Memoria" by Pierre Villette, Laurence Binyon's poem "For The Fallen" and David Briggs' beautifully evocative anthem "O Lord, Support Us" sit beautifully together. No doubt 2014 will bring a flood of tributes and memorials to what happened a century ago but I doubt that there will be many better than this one. Well worth hearing.

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