Gentle Flame: Liz Dilnot Johnson’s diverse output showcased in this disc celebrating her relationship with Ex Cathedra

Liz Dilnot Johnson: Gentle Flame – selected choral works;  Ex Cathedra, Jeffrey Skidmore; Métier
Reviewed 29 October 2024

Showcasing Liz Dilnot Johnson’s diverse choral music, the disc celebrates her relationship with Ex Cathedral who are powerful advocates for her highly effective music

Composer Liz Dilnot Johnson is 60 this year and is celebrating with three different albums of her music, along with launching two new eco-projects inspired by Prof. Kate Raworth’s book Doughnut Economics. Firstly, 60 Wild Songs – a set of improvised songs performed by Liz Dilnot Johnson in different landscapes, raising awareness of the importance of nurturing our planet alongside the importance of our singing voice as a crucial expression of humanity. Secondly, Wild Arts Year, a collaborative multi-media project bringing together creatives of all kinds celebrating our wild landscapes around the UK, a project that has grown out of Johnson’s children’s song A Wild Midwinter Carol.

This concern for the environment has a political element too, and when asked to write a Requiem for the amateur choir in her local church, Dilnot Johnson turned to the conflict in the Middle East and created Colwall Requiem for Aleppo, this work was then expanded for Jeffrey Skidmore and Ex Cathedra to become the 12-movement When A Child Is A Witness – Requiem for Refugees.

This work is the centrepiece of Jeffrey Skidmore and Ex Cathedra‘s disc, Gentle Flame on Divine Art’s Métier label which celebrates Dilnot Johnson’s nine-year relationship with the choir where she has been composer-in-residence since 2021. The disc includes eight smaller choral works alongside When A Child Is A Witness – Requiem for Refugees, taking us from some of Dilnot Johnson’s earliest music to her most recent.

We begin with Gentle Flame (2018) written for Ex Cathedra’s candlelit Christmas concert, a gentle piece where multiple diverse lines coalesce into something special. For Hester (1990) was written after her mother died and features an evocative soprano solo floating over a choral texture full of close harmony and rhythm. The ethereal O Vos (2000) uses just three sopranos to magical effect, and there is a mathematical element too, which is there but not there.

The setting of Gerard Manly Hopkins’ The Windhover (2021) features a robust baritone solo over a gently evocative choral texture where, again, Dilnot Johnson uses multiple layers of different motifs. This multi-layered multiplicity is most notable in Blake Reimagined (2020), which fuses English, Indian classical and jazz improvisation, with three improvising soloists from diverse vocal traditions: Carnatic Indian (Debipriya Sircar, singing in Hindi), gospel/soul (Gabriella Liandu) and jazz (Margaret Lingas). Rather impressively, this track was recorded live in a single take, with no multitracking.

Magi (2021) tells the story in vividly robust fashion, whilst A Midwinter Carol (2022) is an attractive folk-like carol in a very effective new arrangement. The final shorter piece is For this Babe (2017), a lullaby that turns more complex.

When A Child Is A Witness – Requiem for Refugees is a diverse piece, the 12 movements encompass the ordinary of the Requiem Mass, along with words from the psalms. The piece incorporates diverse cultural and musical elements, along with some complex games that are not immediately obvious, so that the vocal line in the Lacrimosa spells out the word C-o-l-w-a-l-l, and at the words ‘Pie Jesu domine, dona eis requiem’ the melody spells out A-l-e-p-p-o. In a way, the multi-layered feel also reflects the work’s genesis as at the very bottom of the layers is Dilnot Johnson’s flexible framework created for her local choir.

Adding to the diversity is the way different movements take different approaches and there is a mix of jazz piano and highly serious organ, along with unaccompanied movements. I have to admit that this diversity of musical forces troubled me in a way that may not indeed matter to many listeners.

The music moves from the gospel-like call and response of the Introit, through more complex serious organ-based movements such as the rather dark Kyrie and the Durufle-inspired Agnus Dei, and a lovely, rather romantic setting of words from Psalm 139, If I Take the Wings Of The Morning. The bluesy-jazzy piano weaves its way through the movements like the brightly uplifting Sanctus and the bluesy Lacrimosa that his hints of Bernstein in his Chichester Psalms. The work ends with quietly internal yet complex choral Lux Aeterna. The work benefits from the skill and enthusiasm of the performers, and their clear belief in the work carries this intriguingly diverse piece off.

Throughout the disc, made in three intense days at the Bradshaw Hall (Royal Birmingham Conservatoire), this intense belief in, enthusiasm for and enjoyment of Liz Dilnot Johnson’s music shines forth.

Liz Dilnot Johnson – Gentle Flame
Liz Dilnot Johnson – For Hester
Liz Dilnot Johnson – O Vos
Liz Dilnot Johnson – The Windhover
Liz Dilnot Johnson – Blake Reimagined
Liz Dilnot Johnson – Magi
Liz Dilnot Johnson – A Wild Midwinter Carol
Liz Dilnot Johnson – For this Babe
Liz Dilnot Johnson – When a Child is Witness – Requiem for Refugees
Gabriella Liandu (mezzo-soprano)
Margaret Lingas (soprano)
Debipriya Sircar (voice)
Suzie Vango (voice)
Lawrence White (baritone)
Rupert Jeffcoat (organ)
James Keefe (piano)
Ex Cathedral
Jeffrey Skidmore (conductor)
Recorded Bradshaw Hall, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire
Métier MEX77125 1CD [72:56]