Paul Mealor’s Ubi Caritas was the real hit of the wedding…The Ubi Caritas setting they did this morning had an austere resonance of plainsong that then flowered into the kind of cloudy harmonic suspensions of a Morten Lauridsen or Eric Whitacre: the two figures that seem to define where-it’s-at choral writing at the moment…I confidently predict that Mealor will now leap to sudden fame on the back of it. His Ubi Caritas was certainly the closest this wedding got to the nerve-touching John Tavener moment at the last big royal ceremonial that broadcast to the world: Diana’s funeral.
Michael White, The Telegraph
One of the most important composers to have emerged in Welsh Music since William Mathias… a real and original talent… Music of serene beauty, fastidious craftsmanship and architectural assuredness… Music of deep spiritual searching that always asks questions, offers answers and fills the listener with hope…
New York Times
One of the many joys of experiencing live music making is that even the hardened concertgoer can experience a real and unexpected revelation. Such, surely, was what happened for the near capacity audience at the recent St Andrews Chorus concert. The cause of this was a piece by a living composer – welshman, Paul Mealor. How is it that after half a millenium of what we would recognise as Western tonal music, can a composer still conjure up new and original, yet beautiful material from what is the same old notes and the limitations of the human voice.
St Andrews Citizen
There was a wealth of glorious harmonic expression in Paul Mealor’s startlingly imaginative and original setting of the Stabat Mater… The dark harmonies at the beginning, with wonderful almost Russian sounding deep bass writing, matched the darkness of the text itself and built splendidly in intensity. The second section with its beautifully sung soprano solo seemed to bring a glow of redeeming light to the music while the vigorous almost lusty singing of the third movement and the warmth of the final prayer led back to the deep registers we heard at the beginning of the work, yet here the significance was magically transformed by what had gone before. I spoke to several people at the interval and the reaction to Paul Mealor’s new work was universally enthusiastic.
Alan Cooper reviewing the UK Première of Mealor’s Stabat Mater
Paul Mealor’s music is published by the University of York Music Press LTD