Perhaps this disc should bear the title “American Choral Music, Volume 2”, as this same choir–a world-class group in every respect–released a similarly interesting, well-chosen, and impeccably-sung program of American works (by Ives, Corigliano, Persichetti, Foss, and Copland) for this same label in 2007 (type Q11034 in Search Reviews). Choral music fans should be very grateful to James Morrow and his excellent young singers, not only for the exemplary choral performances but for documenting repertoire that inexplicably remains rarely recorded.
Vincent Persichetti’s Mass could function equally well as a liturgical or concert piece, and its vibrant harmonic character–that somewhat ambiguous yet still tonal melding of modal aspects with added- and subtracted-note triadic structures, sometimes described (in the latter 20th-century) as “modern-classicism”–works very well with the timbres of voices, and after hearing the University of Texas Chamber Singers’ absolutely dead-on rendition, you just want to go out and perform the work yourself. It’s as finely written and attractive a piece of 20th-century sacred music as you’ll hear, and it’s not so difficult as to be beyond the reach of serious amateur choirs.
William Schuman’s Carols of Death, set to texts by Walt Whitman, are in their own way just as affecting and memorable as the Persichetti, even if the technical demands for the singers are that much greater and likewise the challenges for the listener. William Bolcom’s The Mask (the program’s most recently composed work), a song cycle with piano based on poems by African American poets, shows a (mostly) skillful integration of sung texts and music, engages the ear and emotions with its clever references to ragtime and blues–and features one movement of solo piano, which is among the disc’s highlights. In the first movement the piano sometimes seems superfluous or even irrelevant to the choral parts, and the piano’s clamorous bass just sounds excessive (a clue to this very percussive quality may be found in the texts, but these are only available online).
The earliest work on the program, Irving Fine’s The Hour-Glass, sets six poems by 17th-century English poet Ben Jonson. Not only is this by far the most virtuosic group of pieces on the disc, but Fine’s text-setting is the most imaginative and effective and masterful. The soloists here are outstanding. Finally, Lukas Foss’ Psalms are typically easily accessible (not that there’s anything wrong with that!) but also typically just a bit frothy (a word I always find myself using with this composer), but you can’t help but love the Psalm 23, which gently, peacefully closes the disc, the sopranos floating a lovely high-A. The sound, from a church in Austin, Texas, is sensitive and true to the singers and (except for the one above-mentioned instance) to the piano(s). A superb and important addition to the catalog–highly recommended. [12/13/2010]
