Herbert Howells is known chiefly for his church music, arguably the finest by any English composer of the twentieth century. Sir Patrick Spens, Howells’ first attempt at writing a large-scale choral work, has received only one known performance until this recording. Hymnus paradisi was composed under heart-breaking circumstances following the death of the composer’s son, Michael, aged nine. As Howells later wrote: ‘The sudden loss of an only son … might impel a composer … to seek release and consolation in a language and terms most personal to him. Music may well have power … to offer that release and comfort. It did so in my case.’ Throughout this deeply moving work, in which the human tragedy of a boy’s death and a father’s grief are enshrined, Howells’ command of choral and orchestral polyphony is masterly.