Jenkins - Gloria. Te Deum

National Youth Choir of Great Britain; London Symphony Orchestra

EMI Classics 6464302 Buy now

Karl Jenkins Gloria. Te Deum

Hayley Westenra sop National Youth Choir of Great Britain; London Symphony Orchestra / Karl Jenkins

EMI 6464302 (49’)

With 17 gold and platinum discs awards to his name Karl Jenkins claims to be the world’s most performed living composer. His The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace having been performed almost a thousand times since 2000.

Two of his more recent choral blockbusters are featured on this disc which runs for just under 49 minutes. They feature Jenkins’s usual mix of largely homophonic or unison choral textures, colourful orchestration, a penchant for catchy melodic ideas and a fondness for repetitions building to enormous climaxes.

The Gloria (composed in 2010 for The Really Big Chorus) is cast in five main sections, interspersed with readings taken from world religions, a notion which does little to improve the piece. The opening Proclamation, however, is wonderfully arresting. The central setting of Psalm 150 is equally vivid, almost filmic, somewhat in the musical shadow of the late David Fanshawe. Hayley Westenra’s under-nourished rendition of the syrupy song “I’ll make music” is perhaps the lowest point of the whole disc. Her vowels and aenemic projection leave much to be desired. A redeeming feature, though, is Tim Hugh’s incomparably beautiful cello solo playing. The LSO (recorded separately from the National Youth Choir), enhanced by Jody Jenkins’s ethnic percussion track, respond with musical finesse to the composer’s direction.

Dating from two years earlier the Te Deum bursts with a Dvorákian energy, replete with brilliant trumpet and percussion splashes, bathed in a slightly metallic reverb.

Those seeking smooth, bite-sized servings of spiritual nourishment should look no further. Malcolm Riley