Twentieth Century Masters, Vol 3: (The) American School
The Copland brings a tour de force performance from the Oxford choir
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Libby Larsen, Adolphus Hailstork, Charles Ives, Ned Rorem, Igor Stravinsky, Michael Tippett, Aaron Copland, Morten Lauridsen
Genre:
Vocal
Label: Avie
Magazine Review Date: 2/2007
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 68
Mastering:
Stereo
DDD
Catalogue Number: AV2086
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
(The) Song of Deborah |
Adolphus Hailstork, Composer
Adolphus Hailstork, Composer Edward Higginbottom, Organ New College Choir, Oxford |
In the Beginning |
Aaron Copland, Composer
Aaron Copland, Composer Edward Higginbottom, Organ New College Choir, Oxford |
O Sing Unto the Lord |
Libby Larsen, Composer
Edward Higginbottom, Organ Libby Larsen, Composer New College Choir, Oxford |
O Magnum Mysterium |
Morten Lauridsen, Composer
Edward Higginbottom, Organ Morten Lauridsen, Composer New College Choir, Oxford |
(3) Motets |
Ned Rorem, Composer
Edward Higginbottom, Organ Ned Rorem, Composer New College Choir, Oxford |
Psalm 67 God be merciful unto us |
Charles Ives, Composer
Charles Ives, Composer Edward Higginbottom, Organ New College Choir, Oxford |
(The) Dove descending breaks |
Igor Stravinsky, Composer
Edward Higginbottom, Organ Igor Stravinsky, Composer New College Choir, Oxford |
Mass |
Igor Stravinsky, Composer
Edward Higginbottom, Organ Igor Stravinsky, Composer New College Choir, Oxford |
(A) Child of Our Time |
Michael Tippett, Composer
Edward Higginbottom, Organ Michael Tippett, Composer New College Choir, Oxford |
Author: Peter Dickinson
There's just been a CD of Rorem's works for choir and organ (Black Box, 11/06), so this is another version of his three Hopkins settings, the third especially ecstatic, all livelier than the Harvard University Choir.
Ives's Psalm 67 is remarkable for its bitonality in the mid-1890s: Stravinsky's setting of TS Eliot in The dove descending brings his serial technique into a cappella music - no problems for this choir although this performance may lack softer dynamic levels. Nor in the Mass with wind and brass, where Higginbottom's approach is stark, taut and objective. That's exactly in the tradition of Stravinsky's own 1967 recording but the soloists are better here - and, of course, so is the recorded sound. This performance of the idiosyncratic Mass is another highlight here. In contrast, the works from the 1990s by Libby Larsen, Morten Lauridsen and Adolphus Hailstork are in a conventionally affable and effective church-music idiom.
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