Stabat Mater / The Silent Land / Magnificat I / Ave verum corpus

"As a self-confessed outsider to the "English choral tradition", Swayne nevertheless draws on a trio of stylistic influences: Latin plainchant, Tudor polyphony and traditional African music."
(Gramophone)

"This disc is a hugely impressive achievement from the Dmitri Ensemble and conductor Graham Ross. Ross is himself a composer and shows great sympathy for Swayne's music. The performances of Swayne's difficult music are technically accomplished, profoundly satisfying and vividly expressive. This is contemporary choral music at its best, and it is available at super-budget price."
(MusicWeb Bargain of the Month Feb 2011)

"If this arouses the expectation (or dread) that we're in for another incautiously blended World Music buffet, then prepare to be agreeably surprised...Swayne is expert in his handling of unaccompanied choral resources...everything is held together by a sense of sustained, muscular line rare among modern British composers. A very worthwhile disc"
(BBC Music)

The four pieces on this disc span three decades of Giles Swayne's choral music, their striking echoes of Latin plainchant, Tudor polyphony and traditional African music providing contrasting and complementary strands characteristic of this much-travelled composer.

"The Dmitri Ensemble bring the work of this neglected master into focus for the first time and do so with virtuosic swagger." John Rutter (Producer on this disc)

Magnificat I draws on the music of the Senegalese Jola people and the Ba-Benezele of the Congo. Swayne's moving threnody, The silent land, scored for 40-part chorus and solo cello, combines words from the Requiem Mass and Christina Rossetti's poetry, while Stabat mater is dedicated to the grieving mothers of Israel and Palestine.