Recorded with British choir Tenebrae and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, A Tender Light introduces the new sound of British choral composition to a wider audience. Paul Mealor, 35, was relatively unknown until April 29th when his choral work Ubi Caritas was performed during the Westminster Abbey ceremony to a global audience of 2.5 billion people.
Paul Mealor said:
“This has been an important year for me and it’s a real joy to know people up and down the country are listening to A Tender Light. Entering the classical chart is something I would never have dreamed of when I started writing this music and it’s an opportunity to bring contemporary classical and choral music to a much broader audience.”
Another Novello work, Richard Blackford's Not In Our Time, entered the chart at No. 2 this week in its recording by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Choirs, conducted by Gavin Carr.The hour-long oratorio focuses on the universal theme of how religion is used as a pretext or justification for war, using texts from both the Western and Arab worlds across ten centuries from the First Crusade to President Obama's address in Cairo about reconciliation. Not In Our Time was written for the tenth anniversary of the World Trade Center terrorist attacks in 2001, and premiered in Cheltenham in September.
