Voces8, Eric Whitacre – Home (2023) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Voces8, Eric Whitacre – Home (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:12:51 minutes | 1,24 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Decca Music Group Ltd.

Two branches of choral royalty entwine with majestic harmony on this release from Grammy-winning composer Eric Whitacre and acclaimed vocal ensemble Voces8. The album includes a world premiere, ‘All Seems Beautiful to Me’, and a new recording of Whitacre’s deeply moving 2019 cantata ‘The Sacred Veil’. The five-minute work ‘All Seems Beautiful to Me’ is based on a poem by Walt Whitman (from ‘Song of the Open Road’) celebrating the human spirit’s capacity for generosity and growth. It was commissioned by the United States Air Force Band and here receives its world premiere recording. Also included is a new recording of one of Whitacre’s most frequently performed and much loved pieces, ‘The Seal Lullaby’. The album also includes ‘Sing Gently’ and ‘Go, Lovely Rose’. The former was composed during lockdown specially for Whitacre’s Virtual Choir, made up of over 17,500 singers from 124 different countries. The latter was Whitacre’s first ever composition, written 30 years ago, and thus the album is also, in part, a joyful celebration of his three decades as a composer. The longest work is the twelve-movement, hour-long 2019 cantata ‘The Sacred Veil’ for choir, cello (Emma Denton), and piano (Christopher Glynn). The text, by Whitacre’s close friend and long-time collaborator Charles Anthony Silvestri, commemorates the death of the poet’s young wife Julie from ovarian cancer. It journeys from the growth of their love, through the birth of their children, to their struggle with the illness. One particularly striking section ‘You Rise, I Fall’ involves extraordinary descending and ascending tone-clusters mirroring the emotional states of the dying woman and her husband.

We’d been waiting for it for a long time, too long in fact: after having brilliantly and repeatedly interpreted the works of the American composer Eric Whitacre, the Voces8 chamber choir have now devoted an entire recording to him. This has now been accomplished with Home, which illustrates Whitacre’s musical portrait and the entire evolution of his language. Here, the selection brings together works from his youth (even his very first composition, Go, Lovely Rose), to other pieces finalised just a few months before the recording. With its harrowing light and overwhelming theme, The Sacred Veil, as a central piece, probably stands out as one of the greatest vocal works of our time – here, Eric Whitacre delivers the story about the death of his friend’s wife in heart-wrenching deferential modesty. As always, it’s hard to find anything wrong with a Voces8 release: the timbre is unique and it reaffirms the humble strength of the collective beyond the dissonance of individualistic voices. The purity of the breaths, the melismas’ caresses, the sound recording’s closeness; it all plunges us into a soothing bath of humanity. While the Voces8 early work is exquisite, they become almost unsurpassable in the contemporary repertoire, and leave an invaluable gift for future generations. – Pierre Lamy

Tracklist:
1-01. Voces8 – Whitacre: Go, Lovely Rose (04:32)
1-02. Voces8 – Whitacre: The Seal Lullaby (04:34)
1-03. Voces8 – Whitacre: Sing Gently (03:44)
1-04. Voces8 – Whitacre: All Seems Beautiful to Me (04:52)
1-05. Voces8 – The Sacred Veil: I. The Veil Opens (06:17)
1-06. Voces8 – The Sacred Veil: II. In a Dark and Distant Year (02:06)
1-07. Voces8 – The Sacred Veil: III. Home (03:55)
1-08. Voces8 – The Sacred Veil: IV. Magnetic Poetry (07:09)
1-09. Voces8 – The Sacred Veil: V. Wherever There is Birth (03:30)
1-10. Voces8 – The Sacred Veil: VI. I’m Afraid (05:22)
1-11. Voces8 – The Sacred Veil: VII. I am Here (02:10)
1-12. Voces8 – The Sacred Veil: VIII. Delicious Times (05:07)
1-13. Voces8 – The Sacred Veil: IX. One Last Breath (01:56)
1-14. Voces8 – The Sacred Veil: X. Dear Friends (03:19)
1-15. Voces8 – The Sacred Veil: XI. You Rise, I Fall (09:29)
1-16. Voces8 – The Sacred Veil: XII. Child of Wonder (04:41)

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