Classical groups donโt usually have CD release concerts, but when True Concord Voices and Orchestra performs its annual holiday concert Dec. 12-15, weโre going to think of it as a CD release event.
On Friday, Nov. 1, the choir will release โChristmas With True Concord: Carols in the American Voice,โ a collection of international Christmas carols from England, France, Germany, Poland and Ireland that have new or rarely rarely performed American settings.
A couple of those songs were arranged by Green Valley composer Gerald Near including his arrangement of the traditional Welsh carol โCradle Songโ and his decidedly celebratory vision for the English carol โOn Christmas Night (The Sussex Carol)โ that opens the album.
True Concord knows how to do Christmas. With lush exquisite voices and sublime soulfully American interpretations, they take you beyond the cliche of โJingle Bellsโ and โO Holy Nightโ to a singular somberly opening Mack Wilbergโs arrangement of โAway in a Manger.โ The womenโs voices, sans vibrato, deliciously replicate the sound of a childrenโs choir as the chorus rises above the gently played oboe and Guy Whatleyโs organ.
Detroitโs Stacey V. Gibbs, celebrated for his work with traditional spirituals and hymns, adds a festive toe-tap to the traditional black spiritual โGo Tell It On the Mountain,โ while Wilberg, director of the prestigious Mormon Tabernacle Choir, ditches the Scottish pipes and retains the harp (Christina Vivona) on the traditional Irish song โWexford Carol.โ
Under the baton of True Concord Music Director and founder Eric Holtan, the choir soars on the world premiere of Glen Rudolphโs โOne Gift,โ a glorious musical setting to text by American hymn writer Thomas Troeger, and a stunningly beautiful a cappella arrangement of โSilent Nightโ by the late Stephen Paulus that spotlights a pair of soloists โ the pretty spectacular soprano Cait Frizzell and equally terrific tenor Patrick Michael Muehleise.
Fourteen of the albumโs 17 songs are world-premiere recordings including Howard Helveyโs lush โLove Came Down at Christmasโ with Sara Frakerโs oboe adding lovely harmonies to Alexander Tensterโs piano; and the bluesy โJoseph Dearest Joseph Mine,โ which opens like a Broadway torch song with Frizzel in the solo lead backlit by Christine Vivonaโs harp and delicious male harmonies.
โChristmas with True Concordโ is a follow-up to True Concordโs 2015 Grammy-nominated โFar In the Heavens: Choral Music of Stephen Paulus,โ also released on the classical music giant Reference Recordings whose roster includes Utah Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, True Concord and the PaTRAM (Patriarch Tikhon Russian American Music Institute) from California.
This is the first of five recordings True Concord will make under the $500,000 Dorothy Dyer Vanek Fund for Excellence, which supports the choirโs commissioning and recording projects.
True Concord premiered the first of the fundโs commissions last year, a work by Near based on the poetry of Emily Dickinson. The second commission, Jocelyn Hagenโs โThe Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinciโ for choir, orchestra and film, anchors True Concordโs โMozart & da Vinciโ concert Nov. 22-24. True Concord was among several ensembles that co-commissioned the piece, which was premiered in Minnesota โ Hagenโs hometown โ in March.
Holtan said True Concord will release the second recording in 2020.
