Precious Things: Choral Music by Bernard Hughes The Epiphoni Consort

• Bernard Hughes (1915 - 2006): Perhaps:
• 1 Hughes: Perhaps 03:37
• Psalm 56:
• 2 Hughes: Psalm 56 03:50
• Precious Things:
• 3 Hughes: Precious Things: I. All the gold in the world 02:42
• 4 Hughes: Precious Things: II. Helium 02:31
• 5 Hughes: Precious Things: III. Crude 02:07
• The Linden Tree:
• 6 Hughes: The Linden Tree 03:14
• The Singers:
• 7 Hughes: The Singers 03:30
• If we shadows have offended:
• 8 Hughes: If we shadows have offended 01:41
• Jubilate Domino:
• 9 Hughes: Jubilate Domino 02:56
• I Sing of Love:
• 10 Hughes: I Sing of Love: I. Meditation I 01:55
• 11 Hughes: I Sing of Love: II. ‘Rise up, my love, my fair one' 03:29
• 12 Hughes: I Sing of Love: III. Meditation II 01:43
• 13 Hughes: I Sing of Love: IV. ‘Through love’ 03:41
• 14 Hughes: I Sing of Love: V. Meditation III 01:52
• 15 I Sing of Love: VI ‘Love is patient, love is kind' 04:04
• Bernard Hughes: Two Songs of Spring:
• 16 Hughes: Two Songs of Spring: I. Spring, the sweete spring 02:25
• 17 Hughes: Two Songs of Spring: II. It was a lover and his lasse 02:12
• Jesus, Springing:
• 18 Jesus, Springing 04:14
• Bernard Hughes: A Ternary of Littles:
• 19 Hughes: A Ternary of Littles: I. I saw a Peacock, with a fiery tail 02:29
• 20 Hughes: A Ternary of Littles: II. Ternary of Littles, upon a Pipkin of Jelly Sent to a Lady 03:23
• 21 Hughes: A Ternary of Littles: III. A New Song 02:06
• Seek the peace of the city:
• 22 Hughes: Seek the peace of the city 04:33
• Vocalise:
• 23 Hughes: Vocalise 04:18
• Total Runtime 01:08:32

Info for Precious Things: Choral Music by Bernard Hughes

Devoted to Bernard Hughes's choral music and programmed in close collaboration between the composer and The Epiphoni Consort, this portrait recording reveals a composer for whom musical style grows naturally out of the provenance of his commissions and their chosen texts.

Himself a wordsmith, text setting and delivery are at the forefront of Hughes’s creative thinking, and Epiphoni, making a name for themselves in recordings of music by living British composers, are ideally suited to the delivery of Hughes’s diverse language, in performances that showcase their trademark luxuriant sound.

"Choral music as we rarely hear it - generous, light-footed, surprising. I hope these pieces will be heard more often"

The Epiphoni Consort
Tim Reader, musical direction

The Epiphoni Consort
was founded in 2014 by Tim Reader to fill a gap between the amateur and professional tiers of London’s choral circuit. Its members comprise a number of people who sing to a professional standard but have other full­-time careers.

The group has won awards in Tenebrae’s prestigious Locus Iste Competition and in the London A Cappella Choir Competition, and has appeared on television on the BBC4 documentary “The Joy of Rachmaninov” and the BBC2 documentary “Terry Pratchett: Back In Black”, singing Tallis’s forty­ part motet Spem in alium. The choir’s debut CD, “Sudden Light”, and its follow-up “When Love Speaks” on the Delphian Records label have been received with critical acclaim from Gramophone, Choir and Organ Magazine, BBC Radio 3, BBC Music Magazine and numerous online reviewers.

Recent performances have included Rachmaniniov All-Night Vigil, Durufle Requiem with Echo Ensemble Belshazzar’s Feast at Fairfield Halls with Kensington Symphony Orchestra. Their third album is released in May 2022.

Tim Reader
Artistic Director Tim Reader studied singing, accompanying and conducting at the University of Exeter, graduating in 2000. He returned to academia in 2018 for the Master’s programme in Solo Voice Ensemble Singing with Robert Hollingworth at the University of York, graduating the following year with a merit.

Tim deftly balances dual careers, one in website consultancy for charities and arts organisations, and the other as a singer and choral director in London and surrounding areas.

He has conducted The Epiphoni Consort in performances at Westminster Abbey, St Martin-in-the-Fields, St Paul’s Cathedral, Southwark Cathedral, Canterbury Cathedral, The Barbican, The QEH and St John’s Smith Square, and for the BBC. He conducts as a regular deputy for the professional choir of St John’s Wood church, and numerous choirs and choral societies in the capital.

He is a member of the Sunday morning choir, comprising eight professional singers, at St John’s Wood church.

Booklet for Precious Things: Choral Music by Bernard Hughes