Page 95 - FULL BOOK Isata Kanneh-Mason Childhood Tales

The Pascoe also has some striking music, not least the opening setting of “No man is an island”.
The soloists – in this case Catherine Wyn-Rogers and Julien Van Mellaerts – are outstanding,
and the choir in good voice. The music, especially the passages for chorus, is a bit tamer,
perhaps more “mainstream Anglican” than McDowall’s, but its sincerity and the commitment of
the choir is beyond question. There are times when the music changes gear – notably the setting
of “Do not go gentle into that good night” – and at these points the whole thing takes wing. Both
Requiems are partnered with smaller companion pieces to fill out their discs, and both have
suitably sombre tone. Pascoe’s A Sequence for Remembrance is slight but affecting, and
McDowall’s Seventy Degrees Below Zero sets the final written words of Robert Falcon Scott,
grippingly sung by Benjamin Hulett. Bernard Hughes