One of Herbert Howells’ many settings of the Anglican act of worship is treated as reverently as it deserves.

Howells
Collegium Regale
Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge/Stephen Layton
Hyperion CDA68105

When I listen to Collegium Regale, I see the vaulting in the King’s college Chapel, and the whole building before me. I feel howells has conjured that with his music, and that speaks to me – Stephen Howell

Howells’ loss was  English music’s gain

Every cloud, they say, has a silver lining. In the dark days of World War II, Cambridge was a bleak place; emptied of students and the famous windows of King’s College Chapel put in storage. A middle-aged Herbert Howells was called upon to deputise at St. John’s College. Having weathered the death of his young son from meningitis and finding his style of music increasingly unfashionable, Howells found solace in university life. Amongst the supportive colleagues he found was the Dean of King’s, Eric Milner-White, who suggested that Howells should write some settings of the canticles for the college chapel....