Vocal & Choral
CD and Other Review

Review: Grzegorz Gerwazy Gorczycki (The Sixteen/Eamonn Dougan)

This is the third release in The Sixteen’s admirable exploration of Polish choral works and offers a sample of works by Grzegorz Gerwazy Gorczycki (c. 1665-1734) who lived almost all of his life in Kraków and was regarded as the outstanding composer of the Polish High Baroque. Little is known of his career before he was appointed Kapellmeister at Wawel Cathedral and all but 39 pieces from his output have been lost in the various conflagrations and upheavals that have plagued his nation. The programme opens with an arresting bugle call that promises grandeur and pomp to come but then proceeds through a selection of a cappella and vocal-instrumental pieces of increasingly soporific dullness. Gorczycki’s style was deeply conservative and even the concertante works seem 40 years out of date with few genuinely memorable ideas. The Mass in stile antico is workman-like with a few quirks in the writing that might be discerned by the attentive choral-scholar but will pass the average listener by. There are some sober beauties to be found in the Conductus Funebris and the concluding Litania de Providentia Divina so maybe this is a programme to dip into rather than wade through the whole. I cannot…

August 10, 2015
Vocal & Choral
CD and Other Review

Review: Buxtehude: Vocal Works 9 (Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra)

As I write, the final volume has been issued and Koopman’s latest labour of love has been completed. The job lot on 29 discs has simultaneously been released in a Buxtehude box (which of course is annoying for those of us who have meticulously collected over many years), but if you just want to dip your toe into the Master of Lübeck’s oeuvre you could do worse than pick up a single disc such as this and give it a whirl. Nothing in the series has been quite so revelatory for me as the unfailingly tuneful vocal works, most of which rarely emerge on disc. This volume comprises the usual mix of arias, cantatas and vocal-concertos, but focuses on the composer’s legendary ‘Abendmusik’ series designed to present religious texts outside of the context of church services as such. Highlights include the joyous Was Frag ich nach der Welt with its Alleluias bouncing along in gigue-time, a hummable Welt, Packe Dich with Dorothee Wohlgemuth and Miriam Feuersinger duetting delightfully on top, and an intricately varied Pange Lingua. Koopman’s flair for the improvisatory, attention to text and restoration of original keys makes for a highly engaging series of dramatic miniatures. His orchestral…

August 10, 2015
Vocal & Choral
CD and Other Review

Review: Gabriel’s Message (The Renaissance Players/Winsome Evans)

Winsome Evans and the Renaissance Players have long since proved their dedication to early music in Australia, and in this release, the fifth in a series, they bring to life the music of medieval Spain. The Cantigas de Santa Maria is a collection of poems and music in praise of the Virgin Mary, thought to have been written by King Alfonso X during the 13th century. Therein lies the rub, though – how to accurately perform music so ancient? In the liner notes, Evans argues that Spain at the time took influence from Christian, Judaic, and Islamic beliefs, and as such musical performances would presumably be influenced by the same cultures. Therefore, on this recording there’s a kaleidoscopic range of instruments including Middle Eastern percussion such as the darabuka as well as shawms, the Turkish saz, and psalteries. The resulting arrangements are colourful and inventive, with soprano Mina Kanaridis singing particularly well on the hypnotic Poi-las Figuras. Some of the tracks are a little daunting, though. Beeyto Foi o Dia (Blessed and Fortunate), concerning the birth of Mary, is nearly 25 minutes long – rather a lot of medieval Galician. It’s a fine recording, and an even more impressive bit…

July 31, 2015
Vocal & Choral
CD and Other Review

Review: Ešenvalds: Northern Lights (The Choir of Trinity College Cambridge)

Latvian Ēriks Ešenvalds is one of the latest group of non-British composers to be lionised by that most British of establishments, the Oxbridge choral scene. From 2011 to 2013 he was Fellow Commoner in the Creative Arts at Trinity College, Cambridge where he collaborated extensively with the choir. Its director, Stephen Layton perceptively describes Ešenvalds as “a compositional chameleon”. Therein lies a dilemma. Undoubtedly greatly talented and adept at bringing alive all manner of different texts, Ešenvalds’ music left me wondering where his real voice lay. His Trinity Te Deum is as grand as any other essay in that genre, while his Merton College Service is served up in attractive homophony spiced with cluster chords, but which leaves the listener thinking it could have been composed any time in the last half-century. O Salutaris Hostia starts promisingly with echoes of MacMillan but becomes cloyingly saccharine. Amazing Grace is given a treatment that would make Hollywood envious. Moving away from church music Ešenvalds becomes more original and individual. Northern Lights and his two settings of Sara Teasdale, The New Moon and Stars, suggest there is salvation beyond conformism. Needless to say, Ešenvalds has the best possible advocates in Layton and his…

July 31, 2015