This is already the second recording of the Requiem by Matthew Coleridge (*1980). He is a self-taught choral composer and conductor, and his first major choral work, this very Requiem, was composed in 2016. There are no horror images of divine wrath in it, but much warmth and beautiful melodies sung by the choir, soloists, and especially the solo cello. Coleridge’s musical language and style are not what many today understand by contemporary music. But, does it have to be? Isn’t it much more important how meaningful and moving the music is?

In addition to the Requiem, which lasts about half an hour, there are other compositions by Coleridge which show him to be no less sensitive a composer, and which impress themselves on the listener with their catchy melodies.

The well-balanced choir, the soloists, the musicians, they all devote themselves to the service of this beautiful music under Rupert Gough’s atmospherically sensitive conducting.