Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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59 of 65 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Refreshing new take on Whitacre, February 28, 2006
"Cloudburst" is a welcome addition to the expanding library of recordings of Eric Whitacre's choral works. Here, Polyphony sings expertly, as always, and brings new life to many of Whitacre's pieces with their remarkable intonation, musical phrasing, and spine-tingling dynamic range. This is a special choir made up of some special voices. Conductor Stephen Layton offers some fresh perspectives, with musically sound conducting choices throughout the album (with one major exception, see below). Certain selections stand head and shoulders above any previous recordings, especially "i thank You God..." and "Sleep," where Layton strikes a glorious balance of momentum and rubato, and the nuanced singing evidences the discipline and artistry of the group. (If Polyphony's sopranos don't take your breath away at the climax of "Sleep," nothing will!)
Fantastic recordings of newer Whitacre pieces add to the value of the album. These are some of the strongest tracks on the CD: Her Sacred Spirit Soars, A Boy and a Girl, and This Marriage, all excellent and evidence of Whitacre's development as a composer. Conspicuously absent is "Leonardo Dreams of his Flying Machine," one of Whitacre's most popular choral compositions.
Despite Polyphony's many successes here, there are several less than stellar moments interspersed throughout this album of outstanding choral artistry. Occasionally it sounds as though there are 2 separate choirs battling it out here: the high voices and low voices. The pitch-perfect high voices consistently sing in traditional English straight tone, while the the men occasionally vary from their usual gorgeous unified choral tone to a wobbly male Wagnerian opera chorus several times throughout the album, especially on forte passages. The unfortunate result is a mismatched, uneven blend that robs some of the dense, stacked chords of their signature Whitacreian magic.
Also, the interpretation of "When David Heard" is a real misfire for Layton and is the low point of the album. Layton frantically rushes the choir through the staggeringly huge, mournful piece as though he's got a dinner appointment to get to. This is especially evident during the dramatic climax of the piece, where one can feel the singers' natural musicality dragging against Layton's unrelentingly fast tempo. It's an odd choice by Layton, especially considering his expert treatment of most everything else on the album.
Overall, Polyphony's recording proves to be a must-have for any Whitacre fan and is a stand out addition to the catalog of Whitacre choral recordings.
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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sublime Music, Superbly sung, March 2, 2006
There is good reason for this recording to be topping the bestseller charts. Polyphony Choir based in England is a fantastic choir comprising some very special voices, some genius musicality and all brought together under the masterful direction of Stephen Layton. I had never heard Eric Whitacre before purchasing this disc, but I am a huge fan of Polyphony, which encouraged me to buy it, and I was NOT disappointed. Whitacre's music is sung superbly in this recording with Polyphony demonstrating their huge range of control and passion over the wide variety of Whitacre's music. From tumultuous crescendos and towering climaxes to earth-shatteringly quiet and mournful passages of despair, Polyphony seem to pull every trick out of the bag to ensure that this disc is one that every serious choral music enthusiast should own.
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25 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Definitive Whitacre, February 18, 2006
I suppose I'm somewhat biased towards Eric's music; he and I struck up a nice friendship in the mid 1990's when we were both living in Las Vegas. Back then, he was riding high from the success of "Cloudburst" for choir and percussion and "Ghost Train" for wind ensemble while finishing his undergraduate degree at UNLV, but since then he has refined his compositional technique and given us some real gems that are finding an enduring place in choral literature. Several university ensembles have produced satisfactory representations of his music, but these recordings have more or less been about the desire to flaunt both the blending of voices and the emotional content of particular moments. Other elements are ignored. Stephen Layton's superb professional ensemble Polyphony knows they can sing beautifully; they've been there and done that countless times since they were formed in 1986, so the focus of Cloudburst is similar to their other fantastic recordings of Britten, Rutter, Grainger, Tavener, Walton, and Lauridsen: phrasing and musicality. Layton infuses a momentum to Eric's music we have not yet heard, and after listening to "When David Heard" and "Water Night" countless times while adjudicating choral festivals, it's great to experience those compositions rendered with the holistic approach that is the hallmark of great English choral ensembles. Moreover, just like Eric, Layton is all about the poetry; delivering the glorious verses of Cummings, Dickenson, Waller, Paz, Lorca, and Eric's personal friend Charles Silvestri is clearly foremost in the conductor's mind, and the result is one of the most satisfactory choral CDs I've heard in quite a while.
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