[ Delphian / CD ]
Release Date: Friday 22 May 2020
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n barely a decade of existence, Merton College's new choral foundation has ambitiously redefined the choral landscape of the great university city of Oxford through its twin commitment to excellence & innovation.
Now, focusing entirely on American music of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, this latest in a series of thematically conceived recordings begins as a striking 'double portrait' of two composers who have written or arranged works especially for the choir.
David Lang's austere choral postminimalism, informed by a background of Jewish liturgy and thought, provides a striking foil to Nico Muhly's more richly referential approach; Muhly fell in love with the Anglican tradition as a young chorister in Rhode Island.
Two solo organ works by Muhly, and a transcription from his mentor Philip Glass's opera Satyagraha, widen the expressive gamut still further - from whimsical allusiveness to meditative calm - and are set in context alongside the more stylistically eclectic yet no less powerfully communicative sound-worlds of Libby Larsen and Abbie Betinis. Two final choral items draw on pre-existing traditions of the spiritual and the Baptist hymnal in moving demonstration of the New World's ability to honour its past while gazing Firmly ahead.
"The Merton College Choir are on top form throughout this programme and the other musicians who join them at various times perform to the same high standard. In just a few years Benjamin Nicholas has built this choir into one of the foremost collegiate choirs in the UK and this disc offers another example of their excellence in whatever music comes their way. This latest programme has been discerningly put together. The contents of Merton College discs are invariably enterprising and this latest example is no exception." MusicWeb