SKU: GI.G-CD-883
UPC: 747313273775.
James Whitbourn is known for his 'boundless breadth of choral imagination' (The Observer) resulting in compositions of brilliance and power. His extraordinary work for choir, saxophone and organ, Son of God Mass, receives a new recording from the young voices of one of the finest chamber choirs from Rider University's Westminster Choir College under one of the leading American choral conductors, James Jordan. It is heard alongside premiere recordings of other works associated with life and death, including the Requiem canticorum and Living Voices, a work to commemorate the date of 9/11 with a poem by Andrew Motion. The luminosity and sheer beauty of Whitbourn's composing style is brought to unusual heights by the skills of the Williamson Voices and their conductor, James Jordan. The entire album is a collection of choral music with a spiritual center. The composer's use of saxophone and organ, interweaving with those lovely young Westminster voices, attain a kind of choral glory unusual for any music, extraordinary for 'contemporary' music. The album soothes, stretches, pulls the listener to places of fascination and high emotion, captivates and can often amaze. It is an exalted achievement. — Roger Ames A truly stunning recording.
SKU: GI.G-1095
The Universe works in strange ways. Recorded almost three years ago, none of us could have known that when this recording was released the world would have lived through a life-altering pandemic or a tumultuous upheaval in the cultural awareness that now surrounds us. The work that opens this recording—with the words of Quaker George Fox that end with, “So be faithful, and live in that which doth not think the time long”—provides a haunting premonition regarding the time in which we live, Quaker George Fox is strangely prophetic about these days and perhaps provides a future caution for us all. The music chosen for this recording is strangely and poignantly relevant, I believe, for each of us. “The Fruit of Silence” by Pēteris Vasks reminds us to visit those beliefs that are most sacred in the work by Cortlandt Matthews. A deeply personal Requiem by Peter Relph, in reflection, remembers the hundreds of thousands of lives lost in the pandemic. And then there is Thomas LaVoy’s “O Great Beyond.” All great texts are timeless and speak to the universality of the human condition. Particularly, the George Fox text set by Jackson Hill and the Tagore text set by LaVoy give us messages to reinforce the humanness of each of us for hope. Two other works on this recording poignantly remind us of the passing of life, with the Relph Requiem and especially the final movement of “O Great Beyond.” May these words give comfort to all those who endured the deepest of Life’s losses during our shared pandemic journey. For so many loved ones, goodbyes were said in silence, and alone. It is our hope that all the music on this CD will show us a way for living as we move forward and also give loving comfort to those who have lost loved ones. Peace, my heart, let the time for the parting be sweet. Let it not be a death but completeness. Let love melt into memory and pain into songs. Let the flight through the sky end in the folding of the wings over the nest. Let the last touch of your hands be gentle like the flower of the night. Stand still, O Beautiful End, for a moment, and say your last words in silence. I bow to you and hold up my lamp to light you on your way. —Rabindranath Tagore in The Gardener (1913).
SKU: PE.EP73479
ISBN 9790577019888. 297 x 210mm inches. English.
At First Light was commissioned by Eric Bruskin, a resident of Philadelphia, USA, in memory of his mother. Eric had a longstanding enthusiasm for my work, and I was touched to be the person he approached for a task which is both a privilege and a daunting responsibility. In a sense, no music can ever measure up to the weight of love or the hope of consolation vested in it under such circumstances - but in memory I carry the deaths of both my own parents, and I was able to draw upon that. Eric's fondness for my Cello Sonata (itself written in memoriam) led him to ask that I include a solo 'cello part in the new work - but his attachment also to my polyphonic sacred choral writing meant that he wanted a centrepiece which would be both a showcase of that approach and the celebration of a life well lived. Therefore, the seven movements of At First Light arrange themselves as a series of slow meditations surrounding an exuberant 9-minute motet in which the lamenting cello falls temporarily silent.Eric's Jewish faith meant that approaching an agnostic humanist brought up within the Anglican tradition was hardly free of problems! Gradually, though, I was able to win his approval for a collated mosaic of texts. This embraces some liturgical Latin (necessary for the motet) as the shared preserve of broad western culture in general, but balances it with a secular approach to loss, celebration, remembrance and the many shades of our mourning those whom we see no longer. Eric was adamant that he did not want the title Requiem; but what has emerged is still a form of semi-secular Requiem in all but name, taking its title instead from a phrase in the poem by Thomas Blackburn set as the third movement. This seemed to suggest succinctly how the loss of one very close to us is an awakening into an unfamiliar world where everything is changed. Following the exuberant central movement, the texts by the Lebanese-born Kahlil Gibran and the US, Kentuckian poet Wendell Berry first address the departed loved one directly, then place us within an imaginary funeral cortege, where the perennial and universal in human experience become personal without subscribing explicitly to any particular faith (or lack of it). The final text of all is a translation of a Hebraic prayer, requested and provided by Eric Bruskin, which serves to mirror its Latin counterpart heard at the outset.Throughout, the lamenting cello represents a commentary on the experience articulated in the text. It evokes and, in a sense, tries to embrace and sanctify the individual existential journeys of the bereft, as they in turn seek to make their own sense of what the short-lived Second World War poet Alun Lewis called 'the unbearable beauty of the dead' (movement 5).In a modern world hostage to ever greater menace, displacement, bloodshed and anguish, I hope fervently that this music not only brings a measure of solace to the person who commissioned it, but also makes its own small contribution to bailing out the sinking ship of humanity.
SKU: BT.WH32021
English.
This is the 2013 version (reduced strings) of Per Nørgård's Remembering Child - Viola concerto No. 1 (1986) - Two Movements for Viola Solo (or Cello solo) and Chamber Orchestra. Programme Note: The title refers to the original meaning of the word remembering: Making whole. The work should not be considered as a sort of requiem for Samantha Smith - the late 13 years old fighter for nuclear disarmament - but as an evocation of the childish, creative forces in all people, young and old. Therefore the work applies thematic material of a certain dawning quality, including two Gregorian chants, appearing intertwined in the beginning of the 2. movement. And therefore the workalso may be considered as a tribute to the still living child-heretics, fighting against the global lunacy of grown-up, such as Eamon Burke, the Australian boy, continuing, independently, the work of Samantha. REMBERING CHILD was commissioned by St. Paul Chamber Ochestra and dedicated to Pincas Zuckerman, soloist at the premiere performance (Sept. 12, 1986). Per Nørgård.
SKU: AP.1-ADV6010
ISBN 9783892215301. UPC: 805095060102. English.
It is natural as we age to contemplate the finality of passing on, if not personally, then certainly as an effect from others around you whom have left this space. Having to endure the passing of family and friends is of course very trying. This is especially true when the perception is that someone passed before their time though there are those of us who believe in fate implying that the Force works in its own mysterious way. Composers often commemorate passings with music as a means to mourn and as well to celebrate the life of an individual who meant something to them. Such is the nature of this piece. Movement 1---Past uses as source material themes I wrote for my mother Frances and father Leo when they passed; movement 2---Present centers around a choral (Prayer for Mike) I wrote for my dear friend, saxophonist Michael Brecker when he passed a few years ago. This same period also saw the passing of other friends and associates whom I had known for years, all way too premature, beginning with JF Jenny Clarke and Bob Berg, Hans Gruber, Thomas Stowsand, David Baker, James Williams, Dennis Irwin, John Stubblefield. The final movement---Future is a requiem of sorts for all of us still here. With its improvisational character, it is meant to suggest the positive implications of living life to its fullest. Titles: Past * Present * Future.
SKU: HL.267546
This is the 2013 version (reduced strings) of Per Norgard's Remembering Child - Viola concerto No. 1 (1986) - Two Movements for Viola Solo (or Cello solo) and Chamber Orchestra. Programme Note: The title refers to the original meaning of the word remembering: Making whole. The work should not be considered as a sort of requiem for Samantha Smith - the late 13 years old fighter for nuclear disarmament - but as an evocation of the childish, creative forces in all people, young and old. Therefore the work applies thematic material of a certain dawning quality, including two Gregorian chants, appearing intertwined in the beginning of the 2. movement. And therefore the work also may be considered as a tribute to the still living child-heretics, fighting against the global lunacy ofgrown-up, such as Eamon Burke, the Australian boy, continuing, independently, the work of Samantha. REMBERING CHILD was commissioned by St. Paul Chamber Ochestra and dedicated to Pincas Zuckerman, soloist at the premiere performance(Sept. 12, 1986). Per Norgard.
