Search - John Corigliano, Cecil Effinger, Mel Powell :: John Corigliano: Fern Hill / L'Invitation au Voyage / Cecil Effinger: Four Pastorales / Four Songs about Birds / Mel Powell: Sweet Lovers Love the Spring / Six Love Songs - Oregon Repertory Singers

John Corigliano: Fern Hill / L'Invitation au Voyage / Cecil Effinger: Four Pastorales / Four Songs about Birds / Mel Powell: Sweet Lovers Love the Spring / Six Love Songs - Oregon Repertory Singers
John Corigliano, Cecil Effinger, Mel Powell
John Corigliano: Fern Hill / L'Invitation au Voyage / Cecil Effinger: Four Pastorales / Four Songs about Birds / Mel Powell: Sweet Lovers Love the Spring / Six Love Songs - Oregon Repertory Singers
Genres: Folk, Classical
 
  •  Track Listings (17) - Disc #1

The question is, how badly do you want a disc of very well-sung but not so great music? Here is a selective survey of relatively recent American choral music--and heaven knows we could use more first-rate recordings that c...  more »

     
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The question is, how badly do you want a disc of very well-sung but not so great music? Here is a selective survey of relatively recent American choral music--and heaven knows we could use more first-rate recordings that cover such repertoire. The disc features two substantial works by John Corigliano and some relatively minor and unremarkable choral pieces by jazz pianist Mel Powell and band composer Cecil Effinger. The Corigliano selections were first recorded by the Kansas City Chorale (on Nimbus), and even this outstanding choir couldn't elevate the often meandering, clumsy, and ineffective writing beyond the level of merely interesting. Here, the Oregon Repertory Singers show a fine polish and well-rehearsed enthusiasm that would be far better applied to more substantive scores. Dylan Thomas's "Fern Hill" and Baudelaire's "L'invitation au voyage" quite simply embody such music in their texts that it's merely spoiled in settings that miss the poems' inherent sounds and rhythms. --David Vernier
 

CD Reviews

The best recording of "Fern Hill" yet available
04/17/1999
(4 out of 5 stars)

""Fern Hill," the major work on this CD, has long been one of my favorite pieces of choral music. Corliagno's setting of the Dylan Thomas text is at times riviting, sometimes mesmerizing, and always quite involving. This recording features similarly excellent singing plus wider dynamics and better sound than the otherwise excellent recording by the Kansas City Chorale. Fans of choral music (and choir directors looking for literature) would be well served by getting both CDs however, as each features a number of shorter works well worth multiple hearings."