Richard Allain: When I'm Gone: Choral Works including Missa Brevis

I hope I’m not being too pessimistic when I say not a lot of you will have much of an idea who Richard Allain actually is. This disc (consisting entirely of first recordings) is an excellent way of introducing the Head of Music at Mill Hill School and Composer in Residence for the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain. Apart from the works for Organ, Soprano Saxophone and Soprano, the majority of the works presented are unaccompanied choral works sung with real passion by the young voices. Allain’s style varies from the various arranged spirituals to fabulous block harmonies, notably in the two main tracks, Salve Regina and Improperia. If you want to try something new and accessible, try this - CD Review raved about it and after listening to it, you can understand why.

About the performers

Laudibus is the auditioned young-adult choir of the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain, drawing singers who have come through the organisation’s training scheme; the National Youth Choir itself, conducted here by founder Mike Brewer, has been a major route into professional choral singing for young British musicians since its founding in 1983. Delphian Records, the disc’s label, has built a reputation specifically around UK choral repertoire and first recordings of contemporary British composers, of which this all-premiere Allain disc is a characteristic example.

About the composer

Richard Allain studied at London University and worked at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, before building a parallel career in teaching and composition. Salve Regina, the disc’s title-adjacent centrepiece alongside Improperia, has its own backstory: Allain wrote it around the time of his first child’s birth, and it sat unused for several years before the National Youth Choir of Great Britain took it up, a breakthrough that led to his long association with the organisation as its Composer in Association.