American Polyphony: Barber, Copland, Bernstein, R. Thompson

Opis

American Polyphony: Barber, Copland, Bernstein, R. ThompsonOpis:Product DescriptionAn all-too-rare new recording from Polyphony and Stephen Layton presents highlights from the choral repertoire by four twentieth-century American giants: Samuel Barber, Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland and Randall Thompson. Framed by Thompsons understated favourites Alleluia and Fare Well, the programme includes Bernsteins Missa brevis, Coplands early set of four motets, andof courseBarbers inimitable Agnus Dei.

ReviewStephen Layton's Polyphony are an always impressive choir of startling purity and clarity. This collection of 20th-century US material encompasses familiar pieces from Randall Thompson alongside Barber's declamatory and shifting Reincarnations and several motets, concluding with his great Let down the bars, O death. Bernstein's acerbic Missa brevis benefits from fine solo work from countertenors David Allsopp and Christopher Lowrey, and we hear a curiosity from Bernstein's teacher, Aaron Copland: four motets written when he was a student of Nadia Boulanger in Paris, each infused with the influences of the French choral tradition and a long way from the style we associate with the mature Copland. **** --Observer, 21/6/15A wonderful recital, not to be missed. Barbers's Agnus Dei is given a performance of special intensity. Performance ***** Recording ***** RECORDING OF THE MONTH --BBC Music Magazine, August'15This is an atmospheric anthology, fastidiously chosen and delivered by this fine choir. Gramophone,Aug'15 /// Polyphony and Stephen Layton offer the strongest possible case for approaching the tremendous and the mysterious, however it may be defined, with hearts and minds open to the deepest pleasure. Their latest album, comprising sacred and spiritual choral works by four American composers of the last century, carries a sustaining charge of sensuous beauty, so strong as to shock the system into a state of deep listening. Perhaps shock is the wrong word, although anything that calls for absolute attention in a world of countless digital distractions and competing calls on our time certainly sets down a challenge. Layton and his singers share a vision of perfection in choral singing and have discovered the alchemical process to realise it in performance. Listen to Randall Thompson's Fare Well, for instance, a product of the mid-1970s, musically not of its time yet timeless in its grace and stillness. English is woefully short of words to describe the different qualities of silence and near-silence that arise and fall during the work s closing section. Many associate Samuel Barber's Adagio, originally written for string quartet, with sadness, even heartbreak. The composer's own setting of the work to words from the Latin Mass suggests something other, more urgent prayer for peace than maudlin dirge for the dead. His Agnus Dei deserves a performance stripped of sentimentality. Polyphony's spacious reading steers an ideal middle path between romantic excess and aloof austerity, voicing the music with intense tonal warmth and cultivating ecstasy as the piece moves towards its central climax. I can only invite you to stay present with this wonderful recording and submit to sustained immersion in its sublime soundworld. ***** --Sinfini Music, 22/9/15Autor:American PolyphonyNośnik:Audio CDPłyt:Język: English: Original Language; EnglishData wydania: 2015-07-01Waga: 0.22 gramWysokość: 0.4 cmSzerokość: 4.9 cmDługość: 5.6 cmNew Store StockUWAGA: Kupując produkt na tej aukcji zgadzasz się na wydłużony termin realizacji wysyłki (10-14 dni roboczych). Podany towar pochodzi z zagranicznego magazynu, stąd wydłużony czas realizacji który podany jest obok.