Eric Whitacre - Light & Gold
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CD Details
Artist: Eric WhitacreComposer: Eric Whitacre
Conductor: Eric Whitacre
Performer: The Eric Whitacre Singers
Edition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
CD Release Date: 2010-10-19
Music Label: Decca
Soundtracks:
- Lux Aurumque (Light and Gold)
- i. Temuna (A Picture) [Five Hebrew Love Songs]
- ii. Kala Kalla (Light Bride) [Five Hebrew Love Songs]
- iii. Larov (Mostly) [Five Hebrew Love Songs]
- iv. Eyze Sheleg! (What Snow!) [Five Hebrew Love Songs]
- v. Rakut (Tenderness) [Five Hebrew Love Songs]
- The Seal Lullaby
- A Boy and a Girl
- Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine
- i. I Will Wade Out [Three Songs of Faith]
- ii. Hope, Faith, Life, Love [Three Songs of Faith]
- iii. I Thank You God for Most this Amazing Day [Three Songs of Faith]
- The Stolen Child
- Water Night
- Nox Aurumque (Night and Gold)
- Sleep
Music reviews of Light & Gold
Music Review: Contemporary Choral Masterpieces
Rating: 5 Stars
Eric Whitacre is a rock-star of modern choral music. He has won Grammy Awards, has best-selling albums, and even has three festivals named after him in Australia and Italy! YouTube Virtual Choir performances of his compositions are top hits. He even bears an uncanny resemblance to Josh Holloway, the actor who played Sawyer on the TV show Lost. Clearly he has achieved a popularity that most contemporary composers, myself included, only dream of. Although a few of his works, such as Godzilla Eats Las Vegas, rely on gimmicks and effects for much of their popularity, his real success lies in writing music that is advanced and yet not distancing. He knows the importance of a memorable line, of poignant counterpoint and harmonies, and of the balance of textures.
Whitacre's Lux Aurumque, or Light and Gold, is typical of many of the works on the disc; somewhat slow moving but lovely counterpoint utilizing a short, recognizable motive, performed without accompaniment and more than a little reminiscent of a late Renaissance motet. It's hard to argue with beauty like this, and those who loved Gorecki's Symphony of Sorrowful Songs are sure to adore Whitacre's work...but my one objection is that after about half of the CD the pieces take on a certain sameness. Perhaps I'm arguing against the integrity of Whitacre's style--I hope not, though--or maybe it's merely a flaw in programming that could have been addressed by placing the Five Hebrew Songs later on the disc, as these are the most lively of his works here. The Hebrew Songs are among the most conventional of the pieces on this recording (the other being The Seal Lullaby, written for a projected Disney collaboration), and entirely charming. I'm particularly taken by the accompaniment of string quartet and percussion, which supplies a much needed relief to the a cappella choral singing of most of the rest of the disc.
Whitacre is basically a tonal composer, comfortable in entirely diatonic settings which many of his contemporaries might find `too simple'. But he's also capable of handling more complex sonorities beautifully, and this ability to move smoothly between the unabashedly tonal and the more ambiguously dissonant is the key to much of the beauty of his works, as in Hope, Faith, Life, Love, the second of his cycle of e.e.cummings poems, Three Songs of Faith.
Not only are the songs on this recording gorgeous, but so are the performances. The Eric Whitacre singers are joined by other vocal groups, including the Kings Singers in one movement, and all sing with a lovely purity of voice. That Whitacre himself conducts all of the performances means that tempi and inflections are exactly as intended. The program notes by the composer, while perhaps a bit too self-promoting, offer interesting insights into Whitacre's compositional process. Light and Gold is one of those real rarities, a recording of modern music that almost everyone will love. I recommend it most highly!
Description of Light & Gold
Light and Gold, The Most Beautiful Music on Earth....The first in a stunning collection of Eric Whitacre s choral works conducted for the first time by Eric himself and performed by The Eric Whitacre Singers, Laudibus and friends.
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