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Gjeilo (Pronounced “Yay-lo”)

David Vernier

Artistic Quality:

Sound Quality:

There are many reasons to listen to a recording of choral music: pleasure ranks high on my list. But in recent years, so often on recordings of new choral works the pleasure is missing. Instead, I’m confronted with sounds and effects, complexly constructed and technically difficult, seemingly for the sake of complexity and difficulty. In these cases, meaningful musical or emotional connection is elusive, as is any relationship of music to the text. I’m not talking about composers who thoughtfully and creatively influence the development and possibilities of choral music, encouraging us to listen and think about choral singing in new ways; I’m referring to those who appear to equate advancement of art with making its practice and expression (performance) just more difficult, and thus less and less accessible to both performers and consumers.

Happily, at least on evidence here, Norwegian-born/New York-based composer Ola Gjeilo (nearly every review or article about him comes with the tag after his name: “pronounced Yay-lo”) is not one of the latter. He’s not quite one of the former either, for the works on this program are not innovative as much as they are comfortable in familiar territory of composers such as Rutter, Pärt, and Whitacre. Gjeilo likes to improvise on piano to some of his a cappella choral pieces, which works very well (the entrancing, chantlike, eventually lushly harmonized opening Ubi caritas), and in other instances he adds strings, once even a guitar, in an intriguing rhythmic/melodic partnership with piano (and string quartet) in a setting of a couple of stanzas from Yeats’ The Lake Isle of Innisfree.

A penetrating cello solo joins the otherwise unaccompanied choir (Tenebrae, in this case) for a poignant O magnum mysterium; in Tundra, also with Tenebrae, accompanied by piano and strings, a swift minimalist-style ostinato figure sweeps us in a cinematic rush across the low landscape (Gjeilo admits to deriving much inspiration from film music) before the choir enters in a mostly unintelligible expression of text by Charles Anthony Silvestri (who’s also famously worked with Eric Whitacre)—a not particularly inspired verse, and likewise the music.

The short instrumental Reflections is a pleasant-enough throwaway filler before the final piece, Sacred Heart, sung this time by Voces8 accompanied by string quartet. It’s another of Gjeilo’s settings of the Ubi caritas text, and this one is schmaltzy and pretty and peaceful, and the listening is easy, as is all of the listening throughout the 11 pieces on this program, which clocks in at a surprisingly light 48 minutes.

No, there isn’t anything here that will change the face or direction of choral music, but Gjeilo’s work is well-crafted, singer-friendly and sensitive to text, and mindful of how it will touch a listener’s ear and heart—going back to my original point, the “pleasure” index is high. And while Gjeilo enjoys the attention here of two world-class ensembles—Tenebrae and Voces8, whose flawless singing will impress all listeners—his music clearly is also accessible to the vast numbers of accomplished amateur singers that make up the majority of the world’s choral groups. We singers and conductors may not be hailing Gjeilo as the next great choral composer, but his music is attractive and listenable. Friede auf Erden? or Gjeilo? Hmmm. Life is short; there’s something to be said for pleasure.

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Recording Details:

  • GJEILO, OLA:
    Ubi caritas; The Spheres; The Ground; Sanctus: London; The Crossing; Northern Lights; The Lake Isle; Serenity (O magnum mysterium); Tundra; Reflections; Sacred Heart
  • Record Label: Decca - B0024646-02
  • Medium: CD

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