Various: War & Peace – Music for Remembrance – review

2014 will mark 100 years since the beginning of the first world war, and first into the centenary field is this fine choral compilation that manages to evoke a sombre mood of commemoration while avoiding sentimentality. Not all the music is specifically related to the war: starting from Parry's neglected evocation of Tennyson's Crossing the Bar, it encompasses classics by Brahms, Ireland and William Harris's fine Faire is the Heaven, effective recent works by Mark Blatchly, Matthew Martin, James MacMillan and Geraint Lewis, and a Kontakion of the Dead from Kiev, before concluding with Vaughan Williams's moving Lord, thou hast been our refuge.