Recording Reviews Jace Saplan, Editor

of radiance & refraction The Giver of Stars is surprising and new while Notus, featuring Zorá String Quartet maintaining the qualities appreciated by many Dominick DiOrio, director in Sandström’s earlier music. Innova Recordings 1-002 (2018; 73’19”) Virginia: The West by Aaron Travers is the most “hollow” track on the album. Travers employs f radiance & refraction is the first octave planing above low pedal tones which draw commercial release by the Indiana out some intensely focused overtones. He chooses University Jacobs School of Music’s circling, disquieting themes that elicit images of contemporary vocal ensemble, Notus, under chaos and war. Perhaps the most apparent element Othe direction of Dominick DiOrio. The album of this piece is its technical difficulty, which at times includes five world premiere recordings, as well causes even the consummately skilled Notus to sing as a stunning performance of Stravinsky’s Trois with ragged entrances. Still, Virginia: The West is a pièces pour quatuor á cordes by the Zorá String proficient setting of the Walt Whitman text. Quartet. Unapologetically avant-garde, it is rich with dissonance and disorienting rhythms, yet there are moments of tenderness and humor that John Gibson’s five-movement In Flight is a draw in the most tonal aestheticians among us. refreshing soundscape of electro-acoustic clusters. Pairing five poems from various authors, each of which touches upon different types of flight, The disc opens with Claude Baker’s first provides the framework for a cohesive aural major work for choir. “Hor che’l ciel e la terra” journey. Every movement exploits a unique set of is a reimagining of the second work from ethereal electronic sounds which are overlaid with Monteverdi’s eight book of madrigals, set for a translucent singing. Notus’s choral tone, despite twenty-four-voice chorus and four percussionists. the intentional aspiration, is clean and crisp, and Baker adeptly conceptualizes the “wild beasts,” the scattered solo interjections are effective in their “burn(ing) and weep(ing),” and “sweet and bitter” characterization of the varied aspects of flight. springs in the poem. Notus’ performance is full- throated and startling, brilliantly capturing the allegory of war. The true highlight of this album is the pairing of Stravinsky’s Trois pièces pour quatuor á cordes with Dominick DiOrio’s Stravinsky Refracted, a The second track, The Giver of Stars by Sven- David Sandström, is a genuine standout. Sandström expertly paints lines such as “let The the quiet of your spirit bathe me” and “let the C HORAL SCHOLAR flickering flame of your soul play all about me.” The Online Journal of the National Collegiate Choral Organization Notus employs an array of timbres ranging from aspirated and vulnerable to dark and robust. Volume 9, Number 1 Spring 2020

69 setting of Amy Lowell’s poem, Stravinsky’s Three disturbing. Extensive divisi, ostinato-like passages, Pieces “Grotesques”, for String Quartet. In DiOrio’s and wide ranges create dense sonorities, contrasted composition, themes from Troi pièces are played with highlighted solos and open intervals. while the choir portrays the inner monologue of the poet. The inclusion of organ and marimba provide a sense of whimsy highlighting the Sperry’s vision for Translations is centered around humorous nature of the text. “the idea of ‘translation’ or the transformations that occur within us when we encounter the power of nature…legends…or the divine.” He Of radiance and refraction, may not be the favorite specifically cites Oregon Poet Laureate Paulann recording of the casual audiophile, but it is a Petersen, author of two tracks on this album, on superlative collection of modern choral music. the topic of translation: Neither too lofty nor too breezy, it is a satisfying example of engaging contemporary music. Notus “Art is translation. Art translates the and DiOrio have given us a masterclass on the ineffable into what we can see and hear, future of Western choral music. what we can experience, what touches us. Art translates mystery for us without — Matthew Bumbach destroying that mystery. As translation, art truly is a vehicle for transformation. Art enters and transforms us: lucky, lucky us.”

Translations The listener will encounter this translation- Portland State University Chamber Choir transformation first in O Salutaris Hostia (2009), Ethan Sperry, conductor which opens with a gentle burst of sonic light. Naxos It is as though the first crack in the heavens has 8574124 (2020; 59’) opened, and soloists Ledington and Stier float down on a river of sustained chords. The richness n Translations, Ethan Sperry has curated a of the ensemble is complimented by the purity of sonic journey through the ineffable process the soloists. The Heavens’ Flock (2014) seems to be of transformation; the compositional voice earth’s response to this invitation from heaven. of Ēriks Ešenvalds could not be better suited The exquisite execution of the other tracks on I this recording outshine this one, but only just. to the craft. This album follows Portland State University Chamber Choir’s 2014 album, The The diction is quite good, and is only weakened Doors of Heaven, the first American recording of by the relentless legato line. works exclusively by the Latvian composer. The first real standout is the title track,Translation Ešenvalds’ works have become staples in (2016). The sensation of entering into mystery contemporary choral repertoire; the meditative increases from here through the rest of the A Drop in the Ocean (2006) and the nostalgically album. The soloists’ voices are well-balanced, bittersweet Only in Sleep (2010) are familiar with each other and against the warmth of the introductions to his sound. The tonal center is ensemble. Ešenvalds’ sudden pauses are breathless, rarely completely obscured, and yet the depth complemented by dynamic shifts in the large of harmony and sophisticated use of dissonance ensemble. Truly Ešenvaldian is the repetition of is invigorating, evocative, and occasionally “found their tongue,” as the handbells are played.

70 The mystery of nature gives way to the divine in to be built into the foundations of the wall they My Thoughts, opening with low and static motion. are constructing in order to prevent it falling Occasional bites of dissonance enhance a long, again. The keening portamentosTh egive way to the gloriousFrom crescendo. the The Editor soprano section begins the sustained choir. Sustained dissonances melt into crescendo in earnest, joined by the choir’s lower primal sonorities, and timbral color shifts create voices. The warm breadth of range continues to a frame for CHthe story. The sopranoOR solos, evocativeAL expand outward, reaching a climax on a minor of the courageous prayer of the youngest wife, sing Working Forward SThe OnCHOline Journal of the National CollegLAiate Choral OrgaRnization chord. A Seancooler Burton resolution follows, maintaining the text from poet Martin Camaj’s My Land over the wide space with the majority of the ensemble organ-like chords in the ensemble. Her prayer cradled in the foundation of the basses, with a evaporates intoVolume the 5,return Number of the 2 keening andSpring final 2016 soprano descant glistening four octaves above. open octave. “Hard work is not punishment. Hard work Vineta is(2009) the price returns of admission our gaze forto earth,the opportunity in a The recording culminates with In Paradisum legend ofto areach city swept a sustained away by standardthe Baltic ofSea. excellence.” The (2012), a fitting text to complete this journey. submerged—Jay city Bilas calls sailors to their deaths through Marilyn de Oliveira, cello, and Charles Noble, the church bells. The prayerful voices frequently violist, exemplify the soul’s ascension. The moment sound as bells, enhanced by the ringing percussion. of translation happens with string melodies over “ t’s a busy time of year…I’m just so a wealth of information through their extensive The unearthly breaks between stanzas are enriched the well-balanced choral ocean. Extended string overworked lately.” After listening to several original research. by the subtle overtones in the choir, creating a techniques bring us in and out of consciousness, versions of the aforementioned missive in watery sustain while chimes in the foreground as if in a farewell to prior life. Each repetition of shine out.recent The weeks, insistent and bassthinking drum it builds myself as from the time I the text Ouris newly-treated; work in music we are criticism being encouraged continues to bells of theto time, choir I ring am compelledout in sequence. to posit The a question.effect is Isn’t to go furtherstimulate up, as further well. Andrew in. The Crow’s final rocking Book Reviews evocativeit alwaysand, in Sperry’sbusy for words,most professional finds “the spaces musicians, “requiem”column, translates Peter to ethereal Durow’s harmonics. Recording Reviews beneathespecially the surface those of the whose water primary or perhaps area ofthe activity column, and John Hughes’s Choral Reviews surface concernsof consciousness.” the choral arts? On a personal level, working hard remains my mantra, though Portlandcolumn State all University offer useful Chamber material Choir’s for those of us perhaps working forward is the more accurate sensitivityin theto Ethan sphere Sperry’s of collegiate vision ofchoral translation conducting. From thisexpression. watery story, we are taken to the Legend and mysteryTo that is exquisite. end, if youEšenvalds’ have recentlycompositional authored a of the Walled-In Woman (2005). Lamenting at the languagebook, is stewarded produced well a recording, by their thoughtful or published a bridge over the river, a mother speaks to her sons’ phrasing,new balance, performing and edition, passion. please It is senda joy it toto us for wives. TheTo merelysons have assert agreed that to NCCO sacrifice is growingone of their would experience.critical review. wives, inbe a storya gross similar understatement. to Jephthah. The Our youngest organization son’s wifeis bringsexploding them andfood, we and will she isneed consigned even more — Bethany Lynn Alvey engagement from the membership, with regards A final note concerns engagement once more. to TCS, and myriad other endeavors. Please When you receive an email, text message, or consider yourself already invited to the party as phone call seeking your individual involvement we forge forward into the future. in NCCO, “Just Say Yes!”

Volume 5, Number 2 of The Choral Scholarfeatures —Sean Burton Matthew Bumbach’s guide to Josef Rheinberger’s Op. 64 Maitag: Ein lyrisches Intermezzo No.1 Früh Morgens, William Kempster’s assessment of Pierre de la Rue’s Missa Pourquoy non, James Brown’s study of Tarik O’Regan’s Triptych, and an interview with Craig Hella Johnson by Jos Milton. As always, the authors have provided 71

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