The Choral Scholars of University College Dublin and Artistic Director Desmond Earley follow up their debut release with a programme of new choral music inspired by the evocative imagery of the natural world in traditional Irish and Scottish folksong and poetry. The disc includes a number of world-premiere recordings of new works and arrangements commissioned by the choir.

The Choral Scholars of University College Dublin, under the artistic direction of Desmond Earley, is Ireland’s leading collegiate choral ensemble. With a large repertoire ranging from art to popular music, and stretching from the medieval to the contemporary in style, this choir gives many concerts throughout the academic year, both in Ireland and abroad.

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REVIEW:

The first thing that strikes you about ‘Perpetual Twilight’ is the sheer number and quality of young tenors. Produced by Nigel Short, this whole project exudes quality, from the choral texture down to the array of fine instrumentalists. Caught somewhere between spotlight and Celtic twilight, it’s a strong follow-up to the group’s 2015 debut, ‘Invisible Stars’.

– Gramophone

The Sixteen has long been hailed for it's championing of Tudor music, especially that of the Eton Choirbook, as well as for choral treasures of 20th century and it's work with 21st centuries composers. And so to mark it's 40th year the group has return to it's grass roots in a album that celebrates those passions. An Enduring Voice brings together some of the most glorious music from the past and present. It contrasts a new commission by award-winning composer Sir James MacMillan with music from the 15th and 16th centuries by Fayrfax, Wylkynson and Sheppard. These fine examples of English polyphony are juxtaposed with stunning music by Tavener, Gabriel Jackson and Eric Whitacre.

Will Todd has established himself as one of the UK's most popular choral composers. His anthem, The Call of Wisdom, was performed at the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations with a TV audience of 45 million people. His breakthrough work, Mass in Blue (originally titled Jazz Mass), has been performed hundreds of times all over the world. Passion Music was commissioned for the choirs of St Martin-in-the-Fields and continues the fusion of jazz and choral music so successfully blended in Mass in Blue. The structure highlights different points in the Passion story, beginning with a new setting of 'Greater love has no man' and including an evocative Stabat Mater, a movement focusing on the seven last words of Christ, and a setting of 'Were you there when they crucified my Lord?'. The Jazz Missa Brevis gives new life to the sung Latin Mass texts in an accessible, short setting which embraces a variety of jazz styles, from the swinging jazz waltz Kyrie to the up-beat Latin-groove Gloria. The smooth jazz ballad Sanctus, 7/8 Benedictus and soulful Agnus Dei complete this inspiring Mass setting.

Famed for it's interpretations of some of Handel's most loved works, The Sixteen marks the start of it's 40th anniversary season by releasing it's first new Handel recording in five years. Handel's pastoral opera is a tale of love, tragedy and liberation. The libretto by John Gay, based on Ovid's Metamorphoses (book XIII), tells of the eternal love between the mortal shepherd Acis and goddess Galatea and how it is doomed by the jealous cyclops Polyphemus. Handel's music beautifully demonstrates the pain and love in such beautiful, dramatic choruses as 'Wretched lovers!' and the grief felt by Galatea in 'Must I my Acis still bemoan'. Staying true to the premiere in 1718, just five singers and nine instrumentalists feature on this intimate recording.

Familiar, but unfamiliar - known, but not well-known - this is the credo of the figure humaine kammerchor and it's founder and conductor Denis Rouger. On their first album "Kennst du das Land..." the artists present French as well as German solo songs in arrangements for choir. The songs by Gabriel Faur�, Hugo Wolf, Fanny Hensel, Claude Debussy, Clara Schumann and others can be experienced anew through the choral interpretations. The young chamber choir is accompanied by the pianists Julia Kammerlander and Katharina Schlenker. Founded in 2016, figure humaine kammerchor's main aim is to perform choral music with a high level of vocal development. The focus of their work is on French and German music of the 19th to 21st centuries.

Antonio Juanas wrote some of the great choral music of the late 1700s, but far too little of this work is known. This release presents premiere recordings of these great works, performed by the Collegium Mundi Novi, conducted by R. Ryan Endris. R. Ryan Endris has received critical acclaim for his “ability to imbue his vocal and instrumental forces with his view of the music” and for his ensembles’ “clarity, exquisite phrasing, and vibrancy” (Bloomington Herald-Times). Dr. Endris currently serves as Assistant Professor of Music and Director of Choral & Vocal Activities at Colgate University where he conducts the University Chorus and Chamber Singers. Highly sought after as a conductor and clinician, he has recently appeared as a guest conductor for the Syracuse Vocal Ensemble and Monroe County School Music Association’s Women’s Honor Choir and as a guest clinician at Creighton University (Omaha, Nebraska), University of the Andes (Bogotá, Colombia), and University of Cartagena (Cartagena, Colombia).

Canticle is the inaugural release for the Cincinnati Vocal Arts Ensemble (VAE) on the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra’s Fanfare Cincinnati label. VAE, under the direction of Craig Hella Johnson, is a premier professional vocal ensemble dedicated to presenting passionate and innovative performances of choral music that raise and nurture the public’s appreciation of the life-enriching qualities of the choral arts. This exciting album introduces two recent works by celebrated composer Kile Smith. Kile Smith’s Canticle is a musical setting of one of the world’s great mystical texts by St. John of the Cross. Smith’s transcendent music, noted for the “ease and fluidity of its musical lines, its graceful counterpoint, its shimmering spirituality,” has garnered praise from audiences and critics around the globe. The music comes alive on this release.

The Eton Choirbook is famous – and important – because it uniquely preserves some of the most spectacular music composed in Britain before the age of Purcell and Handel. Had this book not survived, literally dozens of superb pieces would have been irretrievably lost; among them would have been the ones by Walter Lambe, William Cornysh and Robert Wylkynson on this album. Whilst the book itself is of huge historic significance, its legacy is immeasurable, informing and influencing scores of composers and performers for more than 500 years. This unique recording emphasizes that legacy with the premiere of four new works by contemporary composers all commissioned by the Genesis Foundation and all inspired by the works from the Eton Choirbook alongside which they sit. This album also features Stephen Hough’s stunning exploration of faith worldwide- Hallowed- which was commissioned for The British Museum’s ‘Living with Gods’ exhibition. “… the singing of The Sixteen under Harry Christophers was wonderful beyond words.” (Church Times) “Wonderful music, wonderfully performed… sit back and let these glorious sounds fill your ears and lift your spirits.” (Gramophone)

Tenebrae join the Aurora Orchestra with mezzo soprano Dame Sarah Connolly and narrator Simon Callow for ‘A Walk with Ivor Gurney’, an album of choral music celebrating the works of Ivor Gurney whose promising career as a composer was interrupted by World War I. Alongside four pieces of Gurney’s own music are works by his contemporaries, Ralph Vaughan Williams and Herbert Howells. The recording features a new piece by Judith Bingham commissioned by Tenebrae in 2013 for the choir with Dame Sarah Connolly. Described as “phenomenal” (The Times) and “devastatingly beautiful” (Gramophone Magazine), award-winning choir Tenebrae, under the direction of Nigel Short, is one of the world’s leading vocal ensembles renowned for its passion and precision. “For purity and precision of tone, and flawless intonation, Nigel Short’s chamber choir Tenebrae is pretty much unbeatable.” (The Times)

The boys' choir Knabenchor collegium iuvenum Stuttgart is based at the Stuttgart cathedral singing school. The ensemble's strength lies in it's very broad repertoire, which particularly includes works of sacred choral music from the Renaissance to the modern age. This is reflected in the varied selection of Christmas carols on this album: in addition to traditional carols, modern arrangements and new Christmas songs are also included. Instrumental arrangements by the composer and conductor Michael Culo for flute and organ as well as works for oboe and organ ensure a beautiful versatility of sound and style. Conductor Michael Culo studied church music and singing in Rottenburg and Tubingen. He has won prizes in organ, choral conducting, and composition competitions and has received numerous commissions. Since August 2013, Culo has been artistic director of the boys' choir collegium iuvenum Stuttgart.

Following The Sixteen’s hugely successful album, “Song of the Nativity,” which featured Christmas music from the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries, this new seasonal offering explores a stunning selection of festive works from the Renaissance. The Sixteen captures the joy and sincerity of the most wonderful of seasons, from the joyous simplicity of plainsong chants ‘Resonemus laudibus’ and ‘Veni, veni Emmanuel’ to the shining purity of Lassus’ polyphonic ‘Videntes stellam Magi’ and Byrd’s jubilant ‘This day Christ was born.’ This album provides a perfect alternative to traditional carols for those looking for something a little different at Christmas. “The Sixteen gives a masterclass in the art of unaccompanied singing, and in close emotional engagement with the pieces chosen… It puts the music front and centre, in this beautifully realized Christmas sequence.” (BBC Music Magazine)

REVIEWS:

Glorious renaissance polyphony is interspersed with plainchant in this treasure love, and full texts, translations and information sleeves notes make this an enviable Christmas present.

-- Choir & Organ

[The album] was recorded in St. Augustine’s, Kilburn in 2017, the generous acoustic adding a sprinkle of seasonal fairy dust...the pieces range from less the two minutes to nearly 10, the latter Tallis’s monumental Videte miraculum. One of the finest pieces (a difficult choice) is John Sheppard’s Reges Tharis, with its delightfully scrunchy little moments of harmonic and melodic tension, known as false relations.

As usual, The Sixteen sing with an outstanding sense of consort and balance, with superb intonation. Their sopranos, a mixture of younger and more experienced singers, are particularly impressive, the clarity of their voices giving an almost boy treble-like quality in their Veni, veni Emmanuel verse.

-- Early Music Review

The satisfying program of A Renaissance Christmas is no mere academic exercise or collection of rarities for collectors. The Sixteen deliver these works with exquisite tone and polished diction, performing to their expected high standards and creating a memorable impression with this refreshing album. Coro's sound is quite clear in the resonant acoustics, and the singers have a warm and vibrant presence.

-- All Music Guide (Blair Sanderson)

This album introduces both a new voice and a new choir to western audiences: the Estonian P�rt Uusberg (b. 1986) is well known at home as a film actor as well as a composer; and in 2017 Collegium Musicale carried the coveted Silver Rose Bowl of the EBU competition 'Let the People Sing' home to Tallinn. Uusberg's works use many of the devices that have made recent Baltic choral music so popular in the wider world: melodies that unfold calmly over long bass lines, sustained by suspensions and piqued by mild dissonance - reflecting an awareness of the immensity of nature in music that is both exquisitely beautiful and infinitely touching. Endrik Uksvarav graduated from the Estonian Academy of Music and Theater as a conductor in 2004. The Estonian chamber choir Collegium Musicale was founded by Endrik Uksvarav in October 2010, with a repertoire extending from Renaissance to contemporary music. A special place in that repertoire belongs to Estonian composers, among them Arvo Part, Erkki-Sven Tuur, Helena Tulve and Part Uusberg. The aim is to act as ambassadors for Estonian music at the same time as delivering an intense emotional experience.

As it approaches its fortieth birthday, it is high time Notus put out its first record. Founded in 1980 and based in Bloomington, Indiana, the choir is known for its commitment to new music and has premiered over 150 works. Five of their commissions are featured here. Of Radiance and Refraction, their debut album, demonstrates the wealth of talent found in the student ensemble led by Dominick DiOrio, as well as the remarkable works written for them by composition teachers at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, some tackling choral music for the first time. The album is anchored by John Gibson’s substantial work for chorus and electronics, In Flight. His music is paradoxically dark and brooding, light and airy, witty and sardonic. While Icarus is already drowning and half submerged in Brueghel’s painting of the same name, Gibson’s first movement paints the entire story: an opening pastoral scene transforms into the movement of melting ‘wing’s wax,’ with Icarus’ death ‘quite unnoticed’ by the surrounding folk. The goldfinch of the second poem is drawn with harmony out of jazz and sound effects reminiscent of white noise, while the third poem’s constellations swim through a more molecular and symmetrical harmonic world. The fourth movement moves toward the most fulfilling cathartic peak on the word “love”- a love which is short-lived, as the emotional crash of the poet is met with music of equal divisiveness. The fifth movement concludes the set with an atmosphere of smog and metal, of stuttering voices and desolate remains.

In his Mass for Double Choir, Frank Martin’s use of a motet in the style of J.S. Bach juxtaposed with his sonic and exotic harmonic palette of the early 20th century is a formula for exciting music. In addition to this choral masterwork, this collection brings together meditative and sacred music from diverse traditions. This release also features three world premiere recordings: This first recording of Anders Ohrwall’s arrangement of the beloved Swedish folk tune Fabodpsalm fran Dalarna is distinguished by performances by David Kim, concertmaster for The Philadelphia Orchestra, and soprano Sherezade Panthaki, an acknowledged star in the early music field. The much-anticipated release of Lux Surgit Aurea, which was composed by Bernat Vivancos for the Westminster Choir to perform at the 2017 World Symposium on Choral Music in Barcelona is also included here, as well as the first SATB recording of Joel Philips’ Little Lamb, a setting of the poem by William Blake.

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Review excerpt of a May Westminster Choir concert performance of the Mass:

Frank Martin’s “Mass for Double Choir” is such a monumental and strenuous piece that few choirs can successfully perform it. True to form the choir made the work their own. The dynamic contrast went from hushed whispers to bellows that were never strident or ear-piercing. Striking dissonances dissolved into settled harmonies; running passages were as clear as a coloratura soprano; basses droned beneath Medieval-like melodies that contrasted with the Schoenberg-like chords that sometimes peppered the piece.

– David Friddle, Post & Courier (Charleston, SC)

A Prophecy of Peace: The Choral Music of Samuel Adler celebrates the rich common heritage of Christianity and Judaism. This recording spans more than thirty-five years of works by award-winning American composer Samuel Adler. Adler's fresh and imaginative harmonic and melodic language brings a heightened awareness of the texts of these works as well as giving the listener a personal expression that is unique to each work. Highlights include the first recording of Adler's Transfiguration Mass for choir, organ and brass as well as his Verses from Isaiah for choir, organ, brass, and handbells.

Christ Church Cathedral Choir and Stephen Darlington join forces with Soloists from The Sixteen and a stellar group of instrumentalists on this premiere recording. Persecution of the innocent, malevolent authority exerting itself against ideas that threaten and challenge, the power of a peaceful, loving humility in the face of tyranny, the facing-down of fear; all hold profound universal resonance for people of many faiths and those of none. Such is the power of the Passion story and in his new work, Invictus: A Passion, multi-award-winning composer Howard Goodall has found a route directly to people’s hearts, telling the story afresh through his choice of thought-provoking texts combined with heart-rending yet inspiring music. Howard Goodall is a composer of choral music, stage musicals, TV and film scores and a music historian and broadcaster. His choral music has been commissioned to mark many national ceremonies and memorials; his settings of Psalm 23 and Love divine are amongst the most performed of all sacred music. Howard has composed some of the best-known British TV theme tunes of the last 30 years, and his score for the HBO film Into the Storm won him a Primetime EMMY award for Original Dramatic Score in 2009. For the last 25 years he has written and presented his own TV documentary series on the theory and history of music.

One of the UK’s most lauded composers, Roxanna Panufnik celebrates her 50th birthday with a new release of her previously unrecorded choral music, performed by leading British choir Ex Cathedra under Jeffrey Skidmore. Known for her interest in world music, the programme includes performances from Indian arts organisation Milapfest on Unending Love, as well as the a recording of Child of Heaven: Dawn Chorus III – a new commission from Ex Cathedra that sets a Hymn to Dawn from the Rig Veda. Roxanna has written a wide range of pieces including opera, ballet, music theatre, choral works, chamber compositions and music for film and television which are regularly performed all over the world.

“the wind blows” is the title of this album with choral music by the rather unique Norwegian composer Alfred Janson. We are talking contemporary music here, but not the gritty kind. Here beautiful melodies blend with modern means of expression; music that has its root in the Norwegian folk music treasure. The composer himself participates with his well-loved melodica and there are several instrumental soloists as well. This is a worthy continuation of the Norwegian Soloists’ Choir’s contribution to the recording of worthwhile music. The Norwegian Soloists’ Choir is one of Norway’s leading ensembles in any genre and among the foremost chamber choirs in Europe. The choir is equally at home in the classical/romantic repertoire and in contemporary music, making regular excursions into folk-derived music and National Romantic works. The Choir was founded in 1950 by the composer Knut Nystedt, who was its conductor for forty years. In 1990 he was succeeded by Grete Pedersen, who remains the choir’s artistic director to this day.

Somm Recordings celebrates the sublime choral music of Richard Rodney Bennett – best known to a wider audience for his Academy Award-nominated scores to Murder on the Orient Express and Far from the Madding Crowd – with 11 first recordings and a vivid new recording of his choral masterpiece, The Glory and the Dream. Performed by the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Chamber Choir, directed by Paul Spicer and with dexterous support from organist Nicholas Morris, The Glory and the Dream features 12 varied and vivacious choral pieces composed over more than 50 years. The album’s striking title work sets Wordsworth’s ode Intimations of Immortality to music that conjures childhood rapture and adult fears with the utmost finesse and feeling and features a fearsomely complex and challenging organ accompaniment. Dating from 1961, the earliest pieces here are Two Madrigals in which Bennett treats the rich ornamentations of the 17th century to a wholly modern perspective. The most recent work, One Equal Music – a sinewy, austere anthem with a serene ending – was completed in February 2012, just 10 months before the composer’s death at the age of 76. Bennett’s fascination with the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras is also to be found in the elegiac partsong A Contemplation Upon Flowers, the vocal fanfare This Day and Time, a somber meditation on the finality of life and lasting effulgence of Christ’s eternal being, and the simple but affective carol I wonder as I wander. Other seasonal pieces include the early, plainchant-infused The Sorrows of Mary, the gentle ‘hush song’ Lullaby Baby and late, substantial Remember, O thou man, a fervent and heartfelt prayer ending in quiet contemplation. Previous Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Chamber Choir recordings on SOMM have included admired recordings of choral music by Herbert Howells, Samuel Barber and John Joubert, together with partsongs by Ireland, Delius and Stanford.

Even though Charles Gounod is now mostly remembered as a composer of the opera Faust, his main creative focus was church music. His sacred oeuvre eclipses that of his French contemporaries, but cannot conceal Gounod’s affinity for opera. On the occasion of the composer’s 200th birthday, Carus is re-releasing an outstanding recording by the chamber choir I Vocalisti under the direction of Hans-Joachim Lustig of the oratorio "Die letzten Worte des Erlosers am Kreuze" and other sacred compositions: works to which the composer was particularly inspired by his stay in Rome and the Gregorian chant which is very frequently heard there. Depending on the project, the chamber choir I Vocalisti consists of 20 to 60 vocally and musically trained singers from Northern Germany, who come together to perform challenging sacred and secular choral music at a professional level. Since its founding in 1991, the ensemble has performed in numerous concert series and has received prizes at national and international choral competitions, including first prize at the 6th German Choir Competition in 2002 and 1st prizes at the international choral contests in Tolosa, Spain in 2004 and in Cork, Ireland in 2009.

The English composer Michael Brough (born in Yorkshire, in northern England, in 1960) is rather an unusual character: he is also a full time solicitor. Late in 2013, with a commission from the Swaledale Festival, he sat down at his piano and began to improvise the first of what would become 25 Picture-Preludes, in the major and minor keys. Like Rachmaninov's Etudes-Tableaux and Medtner's Skazki, these short pieces are intended to stimulate a response in the listener's imagination. Rachmaninov and Medtner are audible influences on Brough's bluesy, late-Romantic musical language. This recording was made on the 'Bosendorfer 290', a piano with an extended range in the bass. Michael Brough was educated at Leeds University, where he was the chaplaincy organist from 1980 to 1982. He qualified as a solicitor in 1988 and still advises on property and private client law. He has been one of the organists at Holy Trinity Sloane Street, Chelsea, in central London, continuously since 1986. As a composer, he has above all written songs; there is also chamber music, including a half hour bass clarinet sonata, sacred and choral music, and a few pieces for organ.

The Choir of The Queen's College, Oxford explore the works of choral music icon Herbert Howells, in an album that sets his works alongside pieces that his music inspired and influenced (such as Nico Muhly’s Like as the hart for choir, solo violin and percussion) as well as works that in turn influenced him. The release features two world premiere recordings by David Bednall – settings of two Marian antiphons that 'complete' the partly-lost set of works that Howells wrote for Westminster Cathedral. Led by their director Owen Rees, the Choir of The Queen’s College, Oxford is among the finest and most active university choirs in the UK. Its wide-ranging repertory includes a rich array of music from Renaissance and Baroque masterpieces to contemporary works, including commissions. Their recording of David Bednall's Christmas work Welcome All Wonders was met with critical praise: "An excellent [album]: the singing is incredibly tight, in the manner to which it has become increasingly accustomed under its musical director, Owen Rees, and Bednall’s writing is ingenious, embedded in a profound understanding of the workings of the choir and organ – both as distinct entries and as a partnership." (Gramophone)

On this new release 2018 Grammy Award nominees Tenebrae perform a new collection of choral works by Polish composer Pawel Lukaszewski. Born in southern Poland in 1968 in the city of Czestochowa and described by Gramophone as writing "enchanting choral music... beautifully measured phrases, immaculately tailored textures and ingenious use of light and shade to invoke light shining in darkness," Lukaszewski has secured a place in the forefront of European sacred music with performances throughout the world and his works appearing on over one hundred recordings. He studied at the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music, where he still teaches, and is now the Artistic Director and Conductor of Musica Sacra Cathedral Choir in Warsaw. This collection of sacred choral works bears an easily-discernible cultural link with his Polish predecessors such as Lutoslawski and Penderecki, but the influence of Henryk Gorecki and the Estonian Arvo Part is evident too in the fervent but restrained spiritual aspect of Lukaszewski's music, and his individual voice never stoops to mere imitation.

Continuing in the series of Cuban recorded Ansonica Records projects comes Coro Del Mundo - choir of the world. With tracks ranging from sacred to secular, and from delicate to aggressive, the surprising cohesiveness of the composers' work is astonishingly beautiful and impassioned. Schola Cantorum Coralina and Vocal Luna contribute exquisite vocals to the proceedings. L Peter Deutsch's Dance to the Revolution, takes inspiration from the writing of Emma Goldman. The composer explains, "what drew me to her writing was her inclusion of interpersonal relationships, not only political or economic ones, in the vision of ideal society." Deutch's Where Everything is Music transports the listener to Havana. Conrado Monier's Gozando's en La Habana received mention in the Choral Music Contest sponsored by the Cuban Agency of Musical Copyright and the Cuban Music Institute. Monier's second composition on Coro Del Mundo, Gozando en La Habana, is an a capella tour de force effortlessly conjuring up the sights and sounds of the City of Columns. Cuban composer and conductor Guido L�pez-Gavil�n's Qu� Rico �! is a shimmering choral mambo that leaves the listener breathless. Vocal Luna's contribution to Coro Del Mundo is profound. On Cemento Ladrillo y Arena, Murmullo, and Silencio their voices range from brassy brilliance to delicate, angelic whispers. Nowhere is this more apparent than their performance of Cynthia Folio's four-part piece At the Edge of Great Quiet. J.A. Kawarsky's Sacred Rights, Sacred Song also shines with Vocal Luna's participation. Sacred Rights, Sacred Song, a multi-movement piece, envisions Israel as a healthy Jewish democracy in which the spiritual civil rights of all Jews are protected. Michael Murray's El Lunar, based on a poem by Juan Clemente Zenea, depicts the adoration of a beautiful woman. Caminando, based Nicol�s Guill�n's poem focuses on the extreme poverty and scarcity faced by many Cubans in the 1930's. The extraordinary desperation and bleakness Guill�n depicts is emphasized by the implication of cannibalism toward the end of the piece. Both of Murray's pieces are lush with solemn, hypnotic tone. Meira Warshauer's We Are Dreamers is an adaptation of the Jewish psalm Shir Hamalot. With it's blend of religious and cultural influences, Coro Del Mundo is proof that different faiths and beliefs can sit together comfortably at the same musical table.

Harry Christophers and The Sixteen continue their exploration of Purcell’s stunning music written for royal occasions on the second album in their new series. Charles II’s formal Restoration in 1660 marked both an end and a beginning: the end of England’s republican experiment and the beginning of a long process of monarchical reconstruction; and with a politically accident-prone king on the throne, Charles’s public relations machine could never rest. Purcell joined its small team of composer operatives just as the wave of Stuart propaganda swelled massively, and he surfed the wave with breathtaking panache, from his first court ode – the simple but rousing Welcome, Vicegerent of the mighty King – to the ambitious Fly, bold rebellion involving verse settings in up to seven parts and a six-part chorus.