Barnaby Smith & Illyria Consort: Bach
VOCES8 Records

Eric Whitacre & VOCES8: Home
Decca Classics

Could there be a more perfect pairing than Eric Whitacre and VOCES8? In featuring performances by the celebrated UK vocal ensemble of the Grammy-winning composer's works, Home makes the strongest argument possible on behalf of the collaboration. Whitacre himself calls the eight-member outfit his “dream vocal group” and in the release booklet states, “Time after time during these recording sessions I was conducting with tears in my eyes, quietly saying to myself, ‘This is how I always dreamed it would sound.'” Listeners may find themselves as moved by the transcendent performances on the release and the group's glorious vocal sound.

The focus—not unjustly—will be on VOCES8's rendering of Whitacre's twelve-movement The Sacred Veil, but the four compact pieces accompanying it are as rewarding. They're a fascinating mix, too, for including Go, Lovely Rose, written thirty years ago and his very first composition, the world premiere of his recent All Seems Beautiful To Me, and two of his most popular pieces, The Seal Lullaby and Sing Gently, the latter written during lockdown for Whitacre's Virtual Choir of over 17,500 singers from 124 countries. Home has even greater value for including the standalone pieces considering that a recording of The Sacred Veil by the Los Angeles Master Chorale choir appeared on Signum Classics in late 2020.

Sopranos Andrea Haines and Molly Noon, tenors Blake Morgan and Euan Williamson, alto Katie Jeffries-Harris, baritone Chris Moore, bass Dominic Carver, and countertenor (and VOCES8's Artistic Director) Barnaby Smith elevate the material with a gorgeous polyphonic blend. The sound they generate is at times so beautiful and superbly balanced it beggars belief. The moment they rise and fall with serene majesty in Go, Lovely Rose, it's obvious we've entered rarefied territory. In places solo voices extricate themselves from the whole and are as stirring when heard alone. Written for an (unmade) animated film based on Kipling's tale “The White Seal,” The Seal Lullaby tugs at the heartstrings in its delicate setting of words sung by a mother seal to her pup, as does the choir's stunning realization of the sublime Sing Gently. Based on a poem by Walt Whitman (from “Song of the Open Road”), All Seems Beautiful To Me stirs the soul for its life-affirming embrace and uplifting spirit. The passages in these four performances where the voices soar verge on overwhelming for their beauty, but there's never a moment that's less than uncanny.

No appraisal of the album would be complete without acknowledging the sensitive playing of pianist Christopher Glynn, who accompanies the choir on two of the shorter pieces and the longer one. Emma Denton likewise merits mention for her expressive contributions to The Sacred Veil, whose text by Charles Anthony Silvestri memorializes his wife Julie. Through twelve parts (two instrumental), the work traces the stages of their lives, from the love they shared and the birth of two children to her valiant struggle to beat ovarian cancer. The iteration by VOCES8 equals the one by the Los Angeles Master Chorale choir but is arguably even more moving for being the more intimate treatment (Silvestri himself refers to the VOCES8 version as a “stunning, definitive recording”).

Intensifying the impact of the work, the libretto comprises text by Silvestri but also Whitacre and, in particularly devastating manner, diary entries, journals, and e-mail messages by Julie herself. When the diagnosis comes (“I'm afraid we found something …”), the tone of the work turns ominous, the tragic outcome clearly foreshadowed. Near the end, she asks friends to pray (“Fight with me / Don't give up on me”) but to no avail. The penultimate movement “You Rise, I Fall” includes ethereal pitch-shifting that suggests both the rhythms of a dying person's breathing and consciousness drifting in and out of focus. Whitacre's words honour her struggle in the devastating closing part “Child of Wonder” (“Child of iridescence / Child of dream / Stars and moons will guide you / Down the stream”). Here and throughout, his score is elegiac, and the combination of words and music is heartbreaking. It's impossible not to be affected by this creation, especially when it's delivered so poignantly. Glynn, Denton, and the vocal ensemble are to be commended for honouring the work's creators with a precisely calibrated interpretation.

Speaking of perfect pairings, another features Barnaby Smith collaborating with the Illyria Consort on an all-Bach programme that is in many ways as satisfying as the Whitacre set. Following his debut solo album Handel, the countertenor guides the listener through a seventy-two-minute set that advances through the annual cycle of the church year (“a journey which wends its way from Christ's presentation at the temple, through his Passion and to the Resurrection,” in his words). With arias from Bach's oratorios performed alongside the solo cantatas “Ich habe genug” BWV 82 and “Vergnügte Ruh” BWV 170, the release was recorded at the VOCES8 Centre in London and appears on the vocal ensemble's own label.

Showing a perspective on Bach's music that's wise and humble, Smith states, “When you're singing, you feel totally subservient to the music. His genius feels truly beyond anything you can comprehend.” His stellar vocal artistry is well-matched by the Illyria Consort, founded by violinist Bojan Cicic and featuring Leo Duarte (oboe, oboe d'amore, oboe da caccia), Robert de Bree (oboe d'amore), Lynda Sayce (theorbo), Rebecca Hammond (bassoon), Kinga Ujszazy (violin), Jane Rogers (viola), Joseph Crouch (cello), Kate Brooke (double bass), Satoko Doi-Luck (harpsichord), and Steven Devine (organ). Adding to the project's appeal, Bach includes a duet with VOCES8's Katie Jeffries-Harris plus illuminating historical background by Leo Duarte.

Composed for the Candlemas service, the five-part “Ich habe genug” reveals how pivotal the consort's players are to the recording's impact and how terrifically they complement Smith. The moment his entrancing voice enters during the first aria “Ich habe genug, ich habe den Heiland,” one is immediately struck by the authority of the vocal and instrumental execution and the remarkable poise with which they collectively breathe life into Bach's music. The oboe da caccia makes for a stunning partner to his voice in the dreamlike second aria “Schlummert ein, ihr matten Augen,” its ten courtly minutes a constant delight. The final aria “Ich freue mich auf meinen Tod” distances itself from the others in being animated and rhythmically buoyed.

Graced by unforgettable melodies for voice and violin, the supplicating “Erbarme dich” proves as haunting in this context as when heard as part of Bach's Matthäus-Passion BWV 244. No less transfixing is “Et In Unum Dominum Jesum Christum,” the credo from the Mass In B Minor BWV 232, for entwining the voices of Smith and Jeffries-Harris ravishingly. The recording's second cantata “Vergnügte Ruh, Beliebte Seelenlust” receives as commanding a reading as the first, with three contrasting arias again accompanied by two recitativos. The opening aria “Vergnügte Ruh, Beliebte Seelenlust!” enraptures for its warmth and gentleness, the second “Wie Jammern Mich Doch Die Verkehrten Herzen” catches the ear with its organ-and-strings instrumental arrangement, and “Mir Ekelt Mehr Zu Leben,” much like the final aria in “Ich habe genug,” stands apart from the others in being joyful and energized. “Saget, saget mir Geschwinde” from Kommt, eilet und laufet (Easter Oratorio) BWV 249 ends the release on a suitably joyous note.

April 2023