The forty-voice choir, directed by Dale Warland, are known for their advancement of modern choral literature. This CD bookends works by Bejamin Britten and Leonard Bernstein, with several other composers - Stephen Paulus, Nancy Wertsch and Aharon Harlap among them - contributing. Britten's "Rejoice In The Lamb" (Op.30), is an exercise in contrast, with eerie chromatic dissonances and diminutive solo passages in marked relief to the organ-accompanied, florid crescendos of the chorus. Harlap's "Bat Yiftach" features a distinctive solo French horn motif, rebuked by an agitated chorus; the music from Bernstein's "Chichester Psalms" were actually exerpted from work the celebrated conductor had written for an unproduced Thornton Wilder play! With organ, percussion and harp, the result has several movements and is sung in Hebrew; moments of stark beauty are shattered by portentous discord, only to be relieved by a dreamlike peace. |
