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The text of Kenneth Leighton's cantata Crucifixus pro nobis is the ecclesiastical equivalent of a snuff movie, the blue lips, gushing blood and ugly bruises of the crucified Christ's body dwells on lugubriously in the Jesuit Patrick Carey's poem, with the ostensible aim of heaping blame upon the listener.
The graphic images invite boldly expressionistic music, but...
Kenneth Leighton's remarkably consistent musical style means that his characteristic traits, such as extensive use of chromaticism and syncopation, plus intricate counterpoint, are ever present. However, anyone expecting his music to sound all the same should listen to the two radically different settings of the Magnificat and Nunc dimittis. The adventurous harmonic language often leads to tonal...
Layton's Choir is brilliant, make no mistake; it would also be a lie to suggest that I did not get much pleasure from this collection of the very devout composer Eriks Esenvalds. I also cannot determine how thoroughly his piety is infused into his music, always a difficult thing to determine with any composer. Compared to his previous offering that I reviewed, this one is of much softer stuff...
One of the chief pleasures of this CD is right at the beginning—the silvery duetting of Rachel Ambrose Evans and Hannah Partridge, sopranos in Trinity College Choir, in Ēriks Ešenvalds's O salutaris hostias. Their fluid delivery of the little grace notes is delectable, and Stephen Layton secures a perfect balance with the choir in the background.
Ešenvalds's music , if not quite easy listening,...
Latvian composer Ēriks Ešenvalds goes from strength to strength, if the evidence of this exemplary recording is anything to go by. Two years as a Fellow-Commoner at Trinity College, Cambridge (2011-13) coincided with a development of his musical language towards greater simplicity, with diatonicism and homophonic textures dominating. The Choir of Trinity College and director Stephen Layton give...
The Trinity College Choir Cambridge under the direction of Stephen Layton give superlative performances of varied and engaging choral works by the Latvian composer Eriks Ešenvalds. Contemporary music making at its best.
Gavin Engelbrecht