Rise up, my love

A celebration of the sensual, the vital and the earthly, Rise up, my love, is a passionate debut from the Irish Youth Chamber Choir, under their conductor Greg Beardsell. The title comes from English composer Howard Skempton and his four- movement setting of fragments from the Song of Songs, a biblical text unique in its joyous narrations of human intimacy. Rise up, my love is typical of Skempton’s paired-down, exquisitely balanced compositional style. The words are everything, and nothing is over-stated. Beardsell and his singers match this approach in a flowing, natural interpretation that allows Skempton’s rich harmonies to really breathe and bloom.