The Kühn Choir of Prague, Lenka Navrátilová, conductor; Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra, Jiří Petrdlík, conductor; Bree Nichols, soprano; Alexandr Starý, piano; Marcel Javorček, piano; Daniela Kosinova-Valtova, organ.
Ho, Mia Kor’
John CRAVEN: My Life Closed Twice
Michael G. CUNNINGHAM: Hymn–Mass
L. Peter DEUTSCH: The Voices of Creation
L. Peter DEUTSCH: There Will Be Stars
Ryan HOMSEY: Your Name
Hendrik HOFMEYR: Thula, Thu
Hendrik HOFMEYR: The Broken String
Michael G. CUNNINGHAM: The Poet’s Book of Wisdom (II-V)
Richard E. BROWN: The Torment of Medea
Navona NV6583
Formats: Digital only
Release Date: December 1, 2023
Total Duration: 72 minutes
Giorgio Koukl | 22 DEC 2023
Navona Records has released an 18-track recording called Tapestry of Voices, uniting together mostly American composers, most of them not so well known.
The recordings were all made in the Czech Republic, using some respected ensembles like The Kühn Choir of Prague or Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra of Ostrava, so generally, it is no wonder the artistic interpretative level is quite a high one.
NV6583 album art
The eight composers united within this project are Christopher Jessup, David Gaines, John Craven, Michael G. Cunningham, L. Peter Deutsch, Ryan Homsey, Hendrik Hofmeyr, and Richard E. Brown. Their works were recorded in the Czech Republic at The Chapel at Korunní in Prague and Vesmír Concert Hall in Ostrava.
There is a common thread to all this music: it is mostly mainstream with no wild or new experiments, but most of it is well-crafted in terms of compositional abilities.
Astronomia I. When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer by Christopher Jessup opens this installment. It is a fine example of sagacious use of not-too-strident dissonant chords, well designed and extremely well sung by the Kühn Choir of Prague and firmly guided by the conductor Lenka Navrátilová.
A short work by David Gaines, called Ho, Mia Kor ‘follows. It is set for soprano and piano, so we have the chance to be introduced to the real star of this disc: young soprano Bree Nichols, whose versatile and powerful voice is heard in all the single-voice pieces, much to the benefit of the compositions. She is accompanied by the Czech pianist Alexandr Starý, who is an excellent choice for this mixed-content disc. The only negative side is his piano used for this project in Vesmír Concert Hall. It simply is out of tune and sounds very odd.
The same duo tackles the work of John Craven called My Life Closed Twice, a delicate but dramatic score full of passion and, with its seven minutes, the longest single track on the CD.
A set of five tracks written by Michael G. Cunningham, called Hymn-Mass, features the excellent Kühn Choir, this time with a subtle but beautiful organ accompaniment played by the gifted Daniela Kosinova-Valtova. Even if the single tracks are concise, some under one minute, the composition is well-written and superbly sung.
Two short songs by L. Peter Deutsch, The Voices of Creation and There Will Be Stars, follow. Now, this is credibly the best music of the whole disc. Superbly crafted and sung with conviction and a real sense of drama by Ms. Nichols, they will likely be part of the repertoire soon enough.
A short song called Your Name by Ryan Homsey uses the poetry of Joyce Stuphen and transforms it into a magical world.
A set of two songs called Thula, Thu, a Zulu lullaby, and The Broken String, coming from a shaman tradition, justly lead us into the heart of Africa. This is only a logical decision as the South African Hendrik Hofmeyr is the only non-US composer present. Here Ms. Nichols displays all her incredible array of dynamic and range capacities.
Next comes a series of works for choir and piano, four of five from The Poet’s Book of Wisdom, written by Michael G. Cunningham. The variety of composition methods used here is quite impressive, but generally speaking, all remain in a sure realm of tonal and frankly not-so-interesting repetition of existing patterns. The pianist here is Mr. Marcel Javorček.
The last work is also the longest: The Torment of Medea by Richard E. Brown, it lasts over 16 minutes. The drama is omnipresent, but strangely enough, despite all the colorful possibilities of a big symphonic orchestra, the music tends to be repetitive and clearly too long. This might also be the problem of the Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra, certainly not the best orchestra in the Czech Republic, with which even a good conductor like Jiří Petrdlík does not obtain much to display.
This is a genuine mixture of talents and some good interpretative qualities, which have their weaker moments, but certainly can find enough interest to offer something to nearly anyone. ■
EXTERNAL LINKS:
- The Kühn Choir of Prague: kuhnchoir.cz/en
- Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra: jfo.cz/en
- Bree Nichols: breenichols.com
Read more by Giorgio Koukl.
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