Reviewed by Steven Whitehead

This major survey of American a cappella choral works, sung by the outstanding Saint Louis Chamber Chorus, includes many first recordings and covers different traditions of American chamber choirs, from the art song to the spiritual, and from a modern madrigal to a choral symphony. The singing is excellent and we applaud the British-born director Philip Barnes, who has led the choir since 1989. Dudley Buck's "Hymn To Music" opens the CD and succeeds in grabbing our attention which is then lost by Miklós Rózsa's setting of Psalm 23 which although is pleasant enough cannot compete with any of the better known tunes. This reviewer's highlight comes with Bob Chilcott's arrangement of "MLK" which segues into William Dawson's version on "There Is A Balm In Gilead". The U2 lullaby shimmers and shines and fits perfectly with the old Spiritual that I am sure was known by Martin Luther King himself. Chilcott learned his trade with The King's Singers and some of his arrangements are challenging but here the Chorus make it sound divinely simple and simply divine and, for this reviewer, these two pieces are worth the CD price on their own. However much of the remaining 70 minutes is also first class. Other stand outs for me are "What Do You Think I Fought For At Omaha Beach?" by Melissa Dunphy, a "Stabat Mater" by Stephen Paulus, "Symphony For Voices" by Roy Harris and "Sunset: St Louis", a madrigal by Howard Helvey. The Saint Louis Chamber Chorus is one of the finest a cappella choirs I have heard and any listener who has the slightest appreciation of American a cappella singing is urged to investigate further. The fact that much of the material on this disc is appearing on CD for the first time should also make it of great interest to those who like contemporary choral music.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

Interested in reviewing music? Find out more here.