Rare books, manuscripts, music, ephemera…
Posted on 16th March 2026 by simonbeattie
Last week, I delighted to read the following five-star review of the new album of my choral music from Choir & Organ magazine:
The musical world of Simon Beattie is, in the main, lush, chromatic and lyrical. An antiquarian bookseller by profession, he has clearly taken great care with his choice of texts, translating some of them (by Rilke and Heine) and writing one poem (inspired by a First World War Memorial near his Buckinghamshire home) himself. Although self-taught as a composer, Beattie was a choral scholar at Exeter Cathedral and is clearly very familiar with the idioms of choral music. I can hear echoes of Jonathan Dove, Tavener and others in some of these pieces, yet there is a clear musical voice speaking through them all. The professional Choral Sinfonia of London (featured in C&O Spring 2026) gives committed, expressive performances that really do justice to both the more complex works, such as the beautiful setting of Carol Ann Duffy’s ‘World’ which provides the album’s title, and those which the composer justifiably hopes might find their way into the repertoires of amateur choirs. Outstanding for me are the Missa Sanctae Annae and its companion setting of the communion motet ‘O sacrum convivium’, commissioned by Matthew Owens for the girls’ choir of Belfast Cathedral; I have to agree with conductor Michael Waldron when he comments in his sleeve note: ‘How [Beattie] has been able to write an entire Mass setting using just two upper-voice parts (unaccompanied), is nothing short of extraordinary. It is imaginative from the first bar to the last, despite such incredibly sparse resources.’
As ever, I am incredibly grateful to everyone who kindly contributed to the Crowdfunder campaign to make the album a reality. Thank you so much!