Search - Cole, Hong, Keene :: Voices of Ascension - Nine Centuries of Choral Music

Ethereally Beautiful Music; Excitingly Beautiful Price

J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 04/22/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is a four-CD box containing earlier releases by the New York professional choir, Voices of Ascension, led by their music director, Dennis Keene. Voices of Ascension is certainly one of the better small choirs in America. Their home is the beautiful Church of the Ascension located at Fifth Avenue and 10th Street in Manhattan. Each of the CDs had been released earlier, beginning in 1994, at full price; for those lovers of sacred choral music who didn't earlier pick up these discs, buying this this box-set is a no-brainer.



The four CDs are:



1. Mysteries Beyond (Songs and Chants in Praise of Mary) (1994) with selections by Palestrina, Bruckner, Fauré (including his gorgeous 'Tantum Ergo' with Vinson Cole, tenor soloist), Holst, Duruflé, Schubert (including the so-familiar and well-loved 'Ave Maria', sung meltingly by Cole) Victoria, Casals, Mendelssohn, and Bach/Gounod ('Ave Maria', based on the Bach's C major Prelude from WTC I). See reviews at Mysteries Beyond: Songs and Chants in Praise of Mary



2. Beyond Chant (Mysteries of the Renaissance) (1994) with selections by Palestrina, Josquin Desprez, Lassus, Viadana, Byrd, Sweelinck, Tallis (including 'If you love me, keep my commandments'), Schütz, Victoria, Hassler et al. See reviews at Beyond Chant: Mysteries Of The Renaissance



3. Voice of Ascension (From Chant to the Renaissance) (1995) with works by Hildegard of Bingen, Palestrina, Byrd, Josquin Desprez, Tallis, Weelkes, et al., plus several Gregorian chants. Particularly lovely are the Tallis 'In jejunio et fletu' and Hildegard's 'Ave, generosa'. See reviews at Voices Of Ascension: From Chant To Renaissance



4. Hear My Prayer (2004). Much more modern choral music by Randall Thompson ('Alleluia'), Pablo Casals, Mendelssohn, Charles Hubert Parry, Maurice Duruflé, César Franck ('Panis Angelicus'), Herbert Howells, Tchaikovsky ('How blessed are they'), Charles Villiers Stanford ('Beati quorum via') and Edgar Bainton. This is the only one of the four discs that hasn't been previously reviewed here at Amazon. Although a number of singers from the mid-1990s have been replaced, the sound remains essentially the same -- a wonderful combination of tonal beauty and body. It's an American sound with a tincture of English choral sound added. Several of the selections -- Mozart's 'Laudate dominum', Mendelssohn's 'Hear My Prayer', Franck's 'Panis angelicus' -- feature the magnificent soprano, Hei-Kyung Hong, a standout from the Metropolitan Opera.



An outstanding release at an outstanding price.



Scott Morrison"