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Stephen Layton and the Trinity College Choir unearth choral works of rare beauty.
First, a health warning: it is impossible to do anything else but listen once the opening track of this glorious album begins. Don’t pop it on your iPod if you’re planning on walking anywhere quickly as you’re more likely to find yourself staring off into the distance wistfully instead. And it will keep you...
Stephen Layton and the Trinity College Choir unearth choral works of rare beauty.
First, a health warning: it is impossible to do anything else but listen once the opening track of this glorious album begins. Don’t pop it on your iPod if you’re planning on walking anywhere quickly as you’re more likely to find yourself staring off into the distance wistfully instead. And it will keep you...
When I first heard that Trinity College was putting out a recording of all American music I started salivating. I had the opportunity to hear them live on their home turf last year. Our study abroad group made a stop in Cambridge to listen to Trinity College sing evensong last spring. During that evensong, they sang two American works, one of which ended up on this recording. I was blown away...
De Letse componist Eriks Ešenvalds speelt een wonderlijk spel met de beleving van gezongen tekst. Er is volop tekst die we kunnen verstaan en begrijpen, maar Ešenvalds voegt eigenzinnig verschuivende harmonieën en etherisch voortspinnende melodieën toe die de tijd stil lijken te zetten en die contact met de gezongen taal haast irrelevant maakt. Met name in Passion and Resurrection ontstaat een...
Polyphony and Hyperion Records have done more to broaden our choral taste than any other choir or record company in this country. After excellent recent surveys of Gabriel Jackson, Morten Lauridsen, Paweł Łukaszewski and Eric Whitacre, the second `greatest choir in the world` (according to Gramophone) has released a disc of music by the Latvian composer Ēriks Ešenvalds. Unlike the diaphanous...
Ešenvalds responds to the purpose of the words he sets, occupying similar choral territory to the likes of Whitacre and Shchedrin, character rather than ego dominating … Ešenvalds favours the upper voices, giving them luminous, floating melodies against backgrounds that set them in shimmering relief or throw mysterious, penumbrous cloaks around them. Polyphony typically balances beauty of timbre...