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The Singing Guitar / Craig Hella Johnson, Conspirare
Delos

The Singing Guitar / Craig Hella Johnson, Conspirare

$18.99

Details

Composer
ESMAIL JOHNSON MUHLY SMITH
Artist
Conspirare, Johnson, Harvey
Format
CD
Label
Delos
Released
Sep 18, 2020
Catalog #
DE 3595
UPC
013491359526

About

A 2021 GRAMMY Nominee for Best Choral Performance!

The wonderful Conspirare chamber choir, known for its interpretive depth and other-worldly sonic lushness, offers another of its captivating programs — this time joined by three superb guitar quartets — in a program remarkably relevant for our time. The choir is joined by the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, the Texas Guitar Quartet, the Austin Guitar Quartet, and cellist Douglas Harvey for this release featuring compositions by Reena Esmail, Craig Hella Johnson, Nico Muhly, and Kile Smith. Conspirare is a virtuoso choir. The Grammy-winning ensemble comprises distinctive solo artists who are also committed to the highest level of ensemble performance. These professional singers travel to Austin from around the country to perform together, providing their audiences with a rare level of choral music making.

REVIEW:

Conspirare’s new recording featuring the Austin-based choral group and three guitar quartets bookends impressive large-scale works by Nico Muhly and Kile Smith with small jewels by Reena Esmail and founding conductor Craig Hella Johnson.

Smith’s The Dawn’s Early Light features only one guitar quartet but the most beautiful texts, from Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins’s 1883 autobiography, one of the earliest books by a Native American woman.

The participation of three guitar quartets from LA and Texas adds texture and warmth to Muhly’s How Little You Are, a thoughtful 40-minute meditation on the words of American pioneer women in the 19th century, its lovely solos sung by Estelí Gomez.

Esmail’s When the Guitar—inspired by a 14th-century Persian lyric, ‘When the guitar can forgive the past, it starts singing’—uses the intriguing sounds of the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet as one of the layers of a fabulous wrap for the chorus. Johnson’s serene The Song That I Came to Sing, which sets a Rabindranath Tagore poem for cello and treble voices, was composed as a framing piece for the program ‘which would reflect aspects of unfulfilled purpose and a longing for intimacy with the Divine’.

-- Gramophone

The Conspirare chamber choir, known for its interpretive depth and otherworldly sonic lushness, offers another of its captivating programs—this time joined by three superb guitar quartets—in a program remarkably relevant for our time. Conspirare’s debut album on Delos, The Hope of Loving, was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance in 2020. Here, the combination of guitar quartet and chorus is so successful that one wonders why more composers have not written for it. The works on this album were written by four of America’s greatest living composers: Nico Muhly, Reena Esmail, Kile Smith, and Craig Hella Johnson.

-- WFMT Chicago

Tracklist 14 tracks

  1. 1 When the Guitar 06:29
    Track
    1
    Title
    When the Guitar
    Duration
    06:29
    Composer
    Reena Esmail
    Ensemble
    Conspirare, Los Angeles Guitar Quartet
    Conductor
    Craig Hella Johnson
  2. 2 I. We washed our faces at the spring 07:33
    Track
    2
    Title
    I. We washed our faces at the spring
    Duration
    07:33
    Composer
    Nico Muhly
    Ensemble
    Conspirare, Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, Texas Guitar Quartet, Austin Guitar Quartet
    Conductor
    Craig Hella Johnson
  3. 3 II. Do you remember 06:05
    Track
    3
    Title
    II. Do you remember
    Duration
    06:05
    Composer
    Nico Muhly
    Ensemble
    Conspirare, Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, Texas Guitar Quartet, Austin Guitar Quartet
    Conductor
    Craig Hella Johnson
  4. 4 III. A long-drawn wail 06:23
    Track
    4
    Title
    III. A long-drawn wail
    Duration
    06:23
    Composer
    Nico Muhly
    Ensemble
    Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, Texas Guitar Quartet, Austin Guitar Quartet, Conspirare
    Conductor
    Craig Hella Johnson
  5. 5 Interlude: Springtime 03:00
    Track
    5
    Title
    Interlude: Springtime
    Duration
    03:00
    Composer
    Nico Muhly
    Ensemble
    Conspirare, Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, Texas Guitar Quartet, Austin Guitar Quartet
    Conductor
    Craig Hella Johnson
  6. 6 IV. How little you are 07:14
    Track
    6
    Title
    IV. How little you are
    Duration
    07:14
    Composer
    Nico Muhly
    Ensemble
    Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, Texas Guitar Quartet, Austin Guitar Quartet, Conspirare
    Conductor
    Craig Hella Johnson
  7. 7 V. The night herders 10:35
    Track
    7
    Title
    V. The night herders
    Duration
    10:35
    Composer
    Nico Muhly
    Performer
    Estelí Gomez
    Ensemble
    Conspirare, Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, Texas Guitar Quartet, Austin Guitar Quartet
    Conductor
    Craig Hella Johnson
  8. 8 I. I, Sarah Winnemucca 01:35
    Track
    8
    Title
    I. I, Sarah Winnemucca
    Duration
    01:35
    Composer
    Kile Smith
    Performer
    Douglas Harvey
    Ensemble
    Conspirare, Los Angeles Guitar Quartet
    Conductor
    Craig Hella Johnson
  9. 9 II. My grandfather jumped up 04:03
    Track
    9
    Title
    II. My grandfather jumped up
    Duration
    04:03
    Composer
    Kile Smith
    Performer
    Douglas Harvey
    Ensemble
    Conspirare, Los Angeles Guitar Quartet
    Conductor
    Craig Hella Johnson
  10. 10 III. While they were fishing 04:47
    Track
    10
    Title
    III. While they were fishing
    Duration
    04:47
    Composer
    Kile Smith
    Performer
    Douglas Harvey
    Ensemble
    Conspirare, Los Angeles Guitar Quartet
    Conductor
    Craig Hella Johnson
  11. 11 IV. The Palutes are not fond of going to war 02:15
    Track
    11
    Title
    IV. The Palutes are not fond of going to war
    Duration
    02:15
    Composer
    Kile Smith
    Performer
    Douglas Harvey
    Ensemble
    Conspirare, Los Angeles Guitar Quartet
    Conductor
    Craig Hella Johnson
  12. 12 V. The Star-spangled Banner 05:27
    Track
    12
    Title
    V. The Star-spangled Banner
    Duration
    05:27
    Composer
    Kile Smith
    Performer
    Douglas Harvey
    Ensemble
    Conspirare, Los Angeles Guitar Quartet
    Conductor
    Craig Hella Johnson
  13. 13 VI. I shall be beautiful 02:57
    Track
    13
    Title
    VI. I shall be beautiful
    Duration
    02:57
    Composer
    Kile Smith
    Performer
    Douglas Harvey
    Ensemble
    Conspirare, Los Angeles Guitar Quartet
    Conductor
    Craig Hella Johnson
  14. 14 The Song That I Came to Sing 02:45
    Track
    14
    Title
    The Song That I Came to Sing
    Duration
    02:45
    Composer
    Craig Hella Johnson
    Performer
    Douglas Harvey
    Ensemble
    Conspirare
    Conductor
    Craig Hella Johnson