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Stephen Layton and the Trinity College Choir unearth choral works of rare beauty.
First, a health warning: it is impossible to do anything else but listen once the opening track of this glorious album begins. Don’t pop it on your iPod if you’re planning on walking anywhere quickly as you’re more likely to find yourself staring off into the distance wistfully instead. And it will keep you...
Stephen Layton and the Trinity College Choir unearth choral works of rare beauty.
First, a health warning: it is impossible to do anything else but listen once the opening track of this glorious album begins. Don’t pop it on your iPod if you’re planning on walking anywhere quickly as you’re more likely to find yourself staring off into the distance wistfully instead. And it will keep you...
When I first heard that Trinity College was putting out a recording of all American music I started salivating. I had the opportunity to hear them live on their home turf last year. Our study abroad group made a stop in Cambridge to listen to Trinity College sing evensong last spring. During that evensong, they sang two American works, one of which ended up on this recording. I was blown away...
Within seconds I knew I was going to adore this CD and the music of Eriks Ešenvalds … This is a performance of considerable impact, not least in the second movement when the electrifying choral cries of 'Crucify' dissolve so magically into calm, plainchant-inspired music above which Carolyn Sampson floats with angelic luminosity … If the music wasn't so utterly gorgeous, I would happily devote...
De Letse componist Eriks Ešenvalds speelt een wonderlijk spel met de beleving van gezongen tekst. Er is volop tekst die we kunnen verstaan en begrijpen, maar Ešenvalds voegt eigenzinnig verschuivende harmonieën en etherisch voortspinnende melodieën toe die de tijd stil lijken te zetten en die contact met de gezongen taal haast irrelevant maakt. Met name in Passion and Resurrection ontstaat een...
Polyphony and Hyperion Records have done more to broaden our choral taste than any other choir or record company in this country. After excellent recent surveys of Gabriel Jackson, Morten Lauridsen, Paweł Łukaszewski and Eric Whitacre, the second `greatest choir in the world` (according to Gramophone) has released a disc of music by the Latvian composer Ēriks Ešenvalds. Unlike the diaphanous...