The Gramophone - February 2006
CD Review - IMMAGINOSA
Sixty years of American song from The Esoterics:
Beautifully crafted pieces from various eras – and
beautifully sung, too.
Andrew Farach-Colton
‘American inspiration and the modern madrigal’ is the subtitle of this intelligently conceived, lustily sung programme. Embracing more than 60 years’-worth of music, from Elliott Carter’s Heart not so heavy as mine (1938) to Donald Skirvin’s Alchemy cycle (2002), the overall result is surprisingly coherent and satisfying. The coherence derives from the shared strong tonal moorings of these pieces (many of them are quite tuneful, too); the satisfaction comes from their craftsmanship.
One expects skillfulness from Carter, of course, and although his two madrigals (on poems by Emily Dickinson) are a far cry from the thorny overgrowth of his mature style, they have a playful, expressive intricacy that’s impressive in its own right. All the settings are similarly well-wrought, but in different ways. William Hawley’s Four reveries (1995) boast a harmonic and textural opulence that seems channeled directly from Brahms and Duruflé. Skirvin similarly places harmony in the foreground, though his writing is somewhat sparer and more concerned with piquancy than richness. Irving Fine in The hour-glass (1949) and Kirke Mechem in The winds of May (1965) text-paint with less attention to harmonic color and greater reliance on melodic shape and gesture; they’re both witty composers, too. Ross Lee Finney’s Spherical madrigals (1947) glance lovingly back at their Renaissance forebears, and in their contrapuntal elegance and modal-tinged writing they are equally charming.
This disc is the fifth by The Esoterics, though it was my introduction to the 36-voice, Seattle-based choir. I’m mightily impressed. They make a lovely sound, with only a few edgy notes here and there from the sopranos, and they sing everything with warm affection and infectious enthusiasm. Kudos to founder/conductor Eric Banks. Note that the recording (made in the Holy Rosary Catholic Church in West Seattle) is extremely resonant, which flatters the choir’s tone but not its diction, requiring one to follow along in the booklet. It’s worth the bother. Strongly recommended.