In 1993 the Ensemble Singers of the Plymouth Music Series of Minnesota, directed by Philip Brunelle, made the world-premiere recording of Conrad Susa’s Carols and Lullabies: Christmas in the Southwest. That recording, titled Welcome Christmas! Carols from Around the World (RCA), is reissued here by Clarion, along with the rest of the original disc’s varied and interesting program of familiar and lesser-known works and carol arrangements by American composers. Susa’s set of 11 Spanish traditional carols, arranged as a unified work for SATB choir accompanied by harp, guitar, and marimba, was commissioned by Brunelle and the Plymouth Music Series (now known as VocalEssence) as a sort of New World “companion” to Benjamin Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols. While some of the tunes are familiar, Susa’s conceptions are invariably fresh and unique, and while not on the level of Britten’s masterpiece, the work not only engages listeners on a musical level but its texts also offer a different perspective on details of the traditional Christmas story.
The rest of the disc contains mostly familiar carols in new arrangements, from O Little town of Bethlehem (Stephen Paulus), Sussex Carol (Dale Wood), and Infant Holy, Infant Lowly (Daniel Kallman), to Ding, dong, merrily on high! (Chester Alwes) and It came upon the midnight clear (Brunelle). One of the highlights is Paulus’ own Sing Hallelu!, a piece that easily could become a holiday concert standard. The singing is consistent with the other fine work of VocalEssence, whose bright yet rich-textured quality (with warm, free vibrato) epitomizes the best of what might be called an “American” choral sound. The engineering on the original recording was quite good, and I couldn’t detect any appreciable difference between it and this new edition. A comparison of the packaging shows that the new release contains more complete liner notes, providing texts and descriptions of each piece. However, the most important thing is that Clarion has returned an important disc to the choral/Christmas catalog, so if you enjoy Christmas music and didn’t get this 10 years ago, now’s your chance. [9/27/2004]
