Recorded in: Layer Marney Church, Essex June 1984 Producer(s) Brian Couzens Sound Engineer(s) Ralph Couzens Bill Todd (Assistant)

Don’t expect passionate, rhapsodic outpourings along the lines of Schelomo. Majoring on austerity and restraint, Bloch’s Sacred Service (Avodath Hakodesh) post-dates his discovery of a bracing neo-classicism, best exemplified by the Concerto grosso No 1 and Piano Quintet No 1, minor masterpieces we ought to hear more often. Apart from the language of its ritual, the Sacred Service often sounds like Vaughan Williams. The music is four-square and at times obsessively contrapuntal, yet the scoring has a deftness and luminosity that may come as a surprise.

Once touted as the Hebrew Messiah – aficionados will note that Bloch’s own LPO version has resurfaced on the Pearl label – it is much less familiar today and tends to be the preserve of specialist outfits like the Zemel Choir. This accomplished group, celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, has a pleasantly earthy sonority, with reedy sopranos and robust-sounding tenors. The downside is that Orthodox sensitivities have prompted some tinkering with the (Reform Jewish) text. Although the prohibition on pronouncing the name of the Lord originally applied only to the four-letter form of address Christians know as Jehovah, the practice here extends to substituting ‘Adoshem’ for ‘Adonai’. Anyone who grew up with Bernstein’s 1960 recording (Sony, 11/92 – nla) will find this a little odd. On the other hand, while Bernstein’s dramatic intensity and detailed nuancing are scarcely outshone, the piece does benefit from the superior production values enjoyed by Geoffrey Simon in 1978.

This is an early example of the Chandos wide-screen effect, the venue being All Saints Church in Tooting. The soloist, no secular operatic star but a genuine, baritonal cantor, is both eloquent and realistically balanced within the ensemble. The results should prove easy to live with.

-- David Gutman, Gramophone [9/2005]

Henry James’s novella has become notorious as at once the most stylish and elusively ambiguous of all nineteenth-century ghost stories. In June 1932, the eighteen-year-old Benjamin Britten heard a radio adaptation of James’s story and noted in his diary that it was ‘wonderful, impressive but terribly eerie & scary’. He read the novella for himself in January the following year, telling his diary that he still found it ‘glorious & eerie’ and judging it to be an ‘incredible masterpiece’. His subsequent operatic setting is unequivocally a masterpiece, and here receives a first-class production made for television with an outstanding cast led by Robert Murray and Rhian Lois, accompanied by Sinfonia of London and conducted by John Wilson.

Classical Music

Vernon Handley has a great flair for getting the best out of unusual late-romantic music such as this, particularly when it has a Celtic flavour. He secures excellent playing from the Ulster Orchestra, and the recording is beautifully clear and sonorous. -- Gramophone

CLAUSEN All That Hath Life and Breath, Praise Ye the Lord. O magnum mysterium. The Tyger. The Lamb. Mass for Double Choir. Magnificat. Prayer. O vos omnes. A New Creation: Set me a seal • Charles Bruffy, cond; Kansas City Chorale • CHANDOS 5105 (SACD 62:25)

René Clausen has been the director of the famed Concordia Choir of Concordia College in Morehead, Minnesota, for more than 25 years. He is best known to the public as the artistic director of the annually broadcast Concordia Christmas concerts, and in choral circles as an outstanding teacher and conductor. He is also a popular composer, writing for his own ensembles as well as on commissions from other choral organizations. Despite this, I had until recently steered clear of Clausen’s compositions, as early contacts had left me with an impression of a technically accomplished but prosaic prettiness that I do not find particularly interesting. However, Eternal Rest, the second disc that Charles Bruffy and his chorales recorded for Chandos, includes a performance of Clausen’s In pace that suggested I might be missing something. And indeed I have been; a number of the works included on this SACD, Life and Breath, exhibit a compelling harmonic and contrapuntal sophistication, reminiscent of the music of Eric Whitacre, though with less insistent (and ecstatic) dissonances.

The centerpiece of the release is Clausen’s Mass for Double Choir, written in 2011for Bruffy and his two chorales in Kansas City and Phoenix. It is here recorded by an augmented Kansas City Chorale, boasting 31 rather than the usual 24 singers. I suspect that this Mass, the composer’s first, may have been inspired by the Frank Martin masterpiece. If it was, Clausen quickly found his own way, creating a distinctive setting of rich but subtle coloration and great depth of feeling. There are few antiphonal effects for a work ostensibly for double chorus, but the text—or most of it, as Clausen has made some odd, assumedly musically dictated, word and phrase excisions—has been set with skill, clarity, economy, and more than a little imagination. The Mass is the most challenging and substantial work on the program, but other recent pieces like the restlessly inward O magnum mysterium and the Prayer on a text by Mother Theresa—achingly beautiful but never mawkish—further demonstrate the composer’s expressive growth.

There are a few quibbles. The clever Blake settings, The Tyger and The Lamb, provide welcome contrast to the liturgical works, but Clausen never really invites us below the surface of Blake’s vision into either the darkness or the wonder. A couple of the earliest works include quotes of Lutheran chorales, which, while imaginatively done, now seem a little passé. Finally, “Set Me a Seal” from Clausen’s 1989 cantata A New Creation sails dangerously close to the shoals of preciousness. It is, however, his most popular work, so its inclusion is inevitable, and it serves reasonably well as an encore/benediction to the program that precedes it.

The Kansas City Chorale—in conjunction with its sister group, which actually got the first release—is the first American chorus to record with English label Chandos. It is not hard to hear why it was accorded this honor. It offers some of the finest a cappella singing to be heard on disc, on a par with the best of Great Britain’s vaunted choruses, and is Chandos’s answer to Hyperion’s similarly thrilling Polyphony. Tuning is impeccable, and blend is faultless, though I might have liked an additional bass in the balance. Diction is clear and tone varies easily by mood, though projection is slightly restrained, as is Bruffy’s way. The sound and artistry are exemplary. Many a soprano section I’ve heard on disc lately could take a lesson from this choir’s superb singers on how to negotiate leaping high notes. Chandos engineers have provided just enough distance and resonance to support blend while maintaining clarity, and in surround the choir is placed out in a believable space. To anyone who enjoys beautifully crafted, thought-provoking but accessible choral music, this release is most highly recommended.

FANFARE: Ronald E. Grames

Classical Music

The Danish composer Hans Christian Lumbye came from a military background and was taught to play the violin and trumpet at an early age. In 1839 he heard the music of Johann Strauss the elder during a visit to Copenhagen made by a Viennese orchestra. This proved to be a lasting influence and one that is abundantly evident in many of the works on this disc. Though Lumbye’s music lacks a truly original voice, it is nevertheless consistently delightful listening.

The most famous piece is "Købehavns Jernbane Damp Galop" or the "Copenhagen Steam Railway Galop" – an unforgettable four minute ride. With the exception of Drømmebilleder and Amélie Vals, all the pieces given here are miniatures but these two more extended works fully justify their extra length. Lumbye could certainly write a good tune and for about thirty years he did just that for the patrons of Copenhagen’s music halls. In 1843 "Tivoli and Vauxhall", an amusement park which was opened and Lumbye became its music director, a position he held until shortly before his death.

This well-chosen program covers most of Lumbye’s career and two works reflect a sabbatical taken in St. Petersburg in 1850. There is also a Polonaise with Cornet solo which dates from fairly early in his career and for which I presume Lumbye would have taken the solo part. With Champagne Galops complete with popping corks to start and finish, the program has the feel of a New’s Year day concert with a difference.

Gennady Rozhdestvensky’s association with the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra appears to have been on a guest basis. He seems a slightly surprising choice for this repertoire until you put the disc on when it rapidly becomes clear that he was enjoying himself as much as the players. The readings therefore sound completely idiomatic and they are backed up by excellent, atmospheric sound from the early 90s. The various extra musical effects (e.g. the train guard’s voice in the Steam Railway Galop) are captured most realistically. The documentation is detailed and informative with the Danish titles on the liner (as given above) being translated in the booklet.

Anyone who likes the music of the Strauss family should also try some Lumbye. There is quite a substantial series on Marco Polo (currently running to 11 volumes) but a single disc selection will suffice for most people. At mid-price this one will be very hard to beat given its all round excellence. There is a bargain price collection with an overlapping program on Regis conducted by Peter Guth and the Odense Symphony Orchestra. At least some of that I have heard in a previous incarnation and, although it was good, Rozhdestvensky’s collection is well worth a little extra money. This is a most worthwhile reissue of charm-laden music which should cheer you up on a cold winter’s day.

Patrick C Waller
MusicWeb International

Recorded in: Blackheath Halls, London 13-17 December 2000 Producer(s) Brian Couzens Sound Engineer(s) Ralph Couzens Christopher Brooke (Assistant)

Recorded in: Snape Maltings Concert Hall, Suffolk 25-27 January 1989 Producer(s) Tim Oldham Sound Engineer(s) Anthony Howell

Classical Music

Recorded in: Glasgow City Hall 3-4 September 1978 (Enigma Variations) & 11 August 1977 (Pomp and Circumstance Marches) Recorded in: Guildhall, Southampton July 1976 (CD2, tracks 1-14) Recorded in: Christchurch Priory, Dorset 1975 (CD 2, tracks 15-20) Producer(s) Brian Couzens Sound Engineer(s) Brian Couzens Ralph Couzens (Assistant)

Recorded in: Danish Radio Concert Hall, Copenhagen 21, 22, 24 January 1994 Producer(s) Brian Couzens Ivar Munk Sound Engineer(s) Lars S. Christensen

Classical Music

Classical Music