The latest issue of the American Choral Directors Association’s Choral Journal has a fantastic feature for Yale Schola Contorum and Simon Carrington’s Anniversaries & Messages recording:
“In this delightful live recording by Simon Carrington and the Yale Schola Cantorum, the five movements of the Victoria Missa Alma Redemptoris Mater are the outer and inner cornerstones sumptuously supporting the other programmed works: Christopher Theofanidis’ Messages to Myself, Bach’s Der Geist hilft unser Schwachheit auf, Liszt’s Ave Maria and David Lang’s again (after Ecclesiastes). … The Schola’s tone is impeccable and well suited to Renaissance polyphony. There is a discernable color and texture to each section of the choir but on the inner edges of the sections — basses passing to tenors, tenors to altos, altos to sopranos — there is a delicious homogeny. … The Bach Der Geist hilft unser Schwachheit auf and the Liszt Ave Maria are both sung with freedom and care, clarity and musical precision. In this program, however, they are not the highlights, but rather the cleansing courses between the heavier portions of this musical feast. … Beautifully and poignantly minimalistic again nods toward the late John Tavener and the Estonian composer Toivo Tulev. The few lines Lang uses from the Book of Ecclesiastes are designed to ‘create a strange equilibrium of hope and futility’. … The Victoria, Bach and Liszt are certainly appropriate for good college ensembles and even excellent high school choruses. The Theofanidis and the Lang pieces are probably best suited for mature college level ensembles and professional organizations.”
Find the full review in the latest Choral Journal!
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