1 	Lux Aurumque 	3:56
2 	October 	7:39
3 	A Boy And A Girl 	3:56
4 	Sleep 	5:56

Joby Burgess (marimba & vibraphone)
Sam Wilson (marimba & vibraphone)
Calum Huggan (marimba)
Rob Farrer (marimba)

Anyone who knows Eric Whitacre’s choral works will doubtless have been struck by their supremely lush harmonies and overall gorgeous sounds. With these clever arrangements of some of them for various combinations of marimbas and vibraphones, with either two or four instruments being employed, Joby Burgess has managed to breathe new life into what will I’m sure become timeless works. Who knows perhaps this opens the way to treating these pieces to the same kind of arrangements that has been the case for Arvo Pärt’s Fratres which shows that the same music can sound quite different when passed through the prism of varied and different instruments, each one equally valid in its own right.

Marimbas have that ethereal almost unworldly sound that so perfectly matches the similar qualities found in Whitacre’s music. In Lux Aurumque (Light, warm and heavy as pure gold) one can almost feel the warmth while similar aural textures come to the fore in October which describes the colours of autumn again with palpable luminosity. One of the features of marimbas and vibraphones is the resonance that comes from the sustained note that lingers after being hit adding to its other worldly sound.

A Boy and a Girl is played in short passages which serve up another way of hearing these evocative instruments and Sleep rounds off an experience that is quite unique and almost defies description; this is music that must be heard since words cannot do it the justice it deserves. The composer is quoted as saying that Joby Burgess is a “musical genius” in achieving “these really clever, beautiful arrangements” and I couldn’t agree more. At less than 22 minutes this is a very short programme but the asking price is commensurate with its length so if you are a marimba fan I can confidently predict you will love this sumptuous sounding disc. ---Steve Arloff, musicweb-international.com

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1 	Alleluia 	9:25
2 	Equus 	9:02
3 	Oculi Omnium 	3:17
4 	The River Cam 	11:54
5 	Her Sacred Spirit Soars		6:58
6 	Water Night		6:06
7 	Goodnight Moon 	5:09
8 	When David Heard 	17:38
9 	Sleep, My Child 	6:22

Julian Lloyd Webber (cello)
Hila Plitmann (soprano)
Eric Whitacre Singers
London Symphony Orchestra
Eric Whitacre - conductor

I first encountered the music of Eric Whitacre back in 2006 when I reviewed a Hyperion disc of his vocal music. I was impressed both by the excellent performances by Polyphony and Stephen Layton and by the music. If you had invested in shares in Eric Whitacre plc at that point you would have seen a strong return on your money because since then his stock has soared – though I hasten to add that I’m sure my review played no part in that! Subsequently, I’ve encountered several individual pieces by him and, not long ago, I reviewed another disc devoted to his choral music. Whitacre has now become a Hot Property and, as such, has been snapped up by Decca, for whom this is his second disc: the first was reviewed last year by my colleague, William Hedley.

Most of the pieces on this disc are receiving their first recordings – the only ones previously recorded are Her Sacred Spirit Soars and When David Heard. I’ve heard the latter piece on two earlier discs. My first encounter with it was the Merton College Choir CD, In The Beginning. Anyone who has read that review will know that I was critical of the piece, which I believed was overlong for its material and, in its central section, seemed to rely too much on choral effects rather than genuine development. So why am I more enthusiastic about the piece in a performance that lasts 17:38 against 14:12 on the Merton College disc and an even shorter performance from the Elora Singers? There are two reasons. Firstly Whitacre himself takes the extensive central section a bit more broadly than his rivals. Crucially, however, he is much more daring in his treatment of the many silences or pauses that permeate this section, seeming to elongate many of them for a few seconds. He indicates in his booklet note that the silences are a key element in the score. In passing, I wonder if these are annotated in terms of beats or, as I suspect, left to the conductor’s discretion. So even though Whitacre adds more than three minutes to the piece compared with the rival interpretations the result is, to my ears, much more convincing. Whitacre’s direction of his own piece suggests – I may be wide of the mark here – that his music is an attempt to illustrate musically a grief that is so intense that it is difficult to articulate and therefore is expressed haltingly. I still think that perhaps this section is a bit too long but I now think I’m starting to ‘get’ the piece. The opening and closing passages are slow and full of grave emotion and the climax that follows the central section is intense yet has an air of nobility to it. Good though the other two performances are, this one is the best of the lot in terms of control of dynamics, sustaining the tension and sheer concentration. I’m converted.

In the autumn of 2011 Whitacre spent what was clearly a fruitful term at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge University – he has now accepted an invitation to be composer-in-residence there for the next five years. Among the fruits of that association are two vocal works on this disc. Oculi omnium is a Latin grace, used at the College. Whitacre’s short effective setting is for unaccompanied SATB choir although the male voices only get a look in towards the end, for the fivefold Amen. The opening piece in the programme may remind listeners of Randall Thompson’s Alleluia. Just like Thompson, Whitacre sets just the one word for unaccompanied SATB choir. It’s a good piece, featuring some very long vocal lines and it’s beautifully written for voices. A nagging thought at the back of my mind is that it’s a bit too long – perhaps a couple minutes less of music would not have been a serious loss – but I can see this becoming a ‘hit’ with choirs.

I’ve heard Her Sacred Spirit Soars several times before. It was written in association with an American Shakespeare festival and Whitacre’s librettist, Charles Anthony Silvestri, has written a fine sonnet for him to set. Whitacre’s music serves well the literary imagination of the words; there are some very rich choral textures here and the piece builds to an ecstatic setting of the final line. I don’t think I’ve heard the piece done better than this present performance.

Up to now I’ve only encountered Whitacre’s unaccompanied choral music. This disc offers a chance to sample some of his writing for orchestra. I’m afraid I don’t hear much to set my pulse racing. Equus is a piece in which, in the composer’s own words, “there are a LOT of notes”. Indeed there are, but do all these notes achieve much? Whitacre says that he set out to write a moto perpetuo – in his 2011 revision he added strings to the scoring – and he calls the end result “dynamic minimalism”. The piece is strongly rhythmic and, to be sure, there’s a good deal of energy and surface excitement but, frankly, this sort of thing has been done many times over before by composers such as Michael Torke or, in some early works, John Adams. Equus is, arguably, twenty years too late and, to my ears, it’s old hat.

The River Cam is, as its name suggests, another Cambridge piece, inspired by the composer’s daily walks along the river banks. Commissioned by Julian Lloyd Webber, Whitacre says that this piece became, as he was writing it, “a ‘pastoral piece’, undeniably British, with serious echoes of Elgar and Vaughan Williams.” Those who know the music of those two composers might be forgiven for thinking that the result is, in fact, something of a pastiche. The songful nature of the cello is exploited but the string orchestra accompaniment is pretty uneventful and more of a pleasing backdrop than anything else. The piece has an undeniable surface beauty but I found it made no lasting impression on me.

Water Night is an arrangement for string orchestra of an unaccompanied choral setting of words by Octavio Paz. Whitacre recorded the choral version on his earlier Decca disc. I haven’t heard that CD but I have come across the vocal version on the Elora Festival Singers’ Naxos disc. I think I prefer the original version where the words give a bit of definition to the music, which is lacking in the instrumental version. Goodnight Moon is a setting for soprano – here, the composer’s wife, Hila Plitmann – strings and harp of a children’s poem that Whitacre used to read nightly to their young son. I’m afraid I find the setting completely twee so I won’t make any further comment on it.

There is a lot of undeniably beautiful music on this disc, especially in the choral pieces. However, I couldn’t help but notice the comment made by William Hedley in reviewing Whitacre’s previous disc, Light and Gold: “All this music demonstrates the composer’s remarkable ear for choral texture, and there are many moments of near-sublime beauty. The unrelieved richness tires me out, however, and I long for more in the way of melodic line and real counterpoint.” I can only agree, though it’s fair to say that the disc in question went on to achieve great popularity and to win several awards. William went on to qualify his remarks by acknowledging that his reaction “may be no more than a simple matter of taste” and in seconding that I should also remind myself that this disc brought me to an appreciation of When David Heard that had previously eluded me. So for me the jury continues to be out as far as Eric Whitacre’s music is concerned. I suspect it may not be a good idea to hear too many of his pieces at one sitting, as the reviewer is bound to do.

I’m sure that Whitacre’s many admirers will want to acquire this disc, especially as it contains so much material that is previously unrecorded. Those who buy the disc will find that the performances are all that could be desired in terms of quality of singing and playing. ---John Quinn, musicweb-international.com

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1 	The Veil Opens 	
2 	In A Dark And Distant Year 	2:19
3 	Home 	4:48
4 	Magnetic Poetry 	6:30
5 	Whenever There is Birth 	3:36
6 	I'm Afraid 	5:17
7 	I Am Here 	2:23
8 	Delicious Times 	5:20
9 	One Last Breath 	1:40
10 	Dear Friends 	3:17
11 	You Rise, I Fall 	10:00
12 	Child Of Wonder 	4:44
13 	Interview With Eric Whitacre and Charles Anthony Silvestri 	22:56

Alto – Eleni Pantages, Garineh Avakian, Ilana Summers, Jessie Shulman, Kristen Toedtman, Laura Smith Roethe,
 Leslie Inman Sobol, Niké St. Clair, Sarah Lynch, Sharmila G. Lash
Bass – Adrien Redford, Ben Lin, Brett McDermid, David Dong-Geun Kim, Derrell Acon, Dylan Gentile, John Buffett,
 Luc Kleiner, Mark Edward Smith, Michael Bannett
Cello – Jeffrey Zeigler
Conductor [Artistic Director] – Grant Gershon
Conductor, Text By – Eric Whitacre
Piano – Lisa Edwards 
Soprano – Andrea Zomorodian, Caroline McKenzie, Christina Bristow, Claire Fedoruk, Elyse Willis,
 Emma-Grace Dunbar, Karen Hogle Brown, Kelci Hahn, Suzanne Waters, Tamara Bevard
Tenor – Adam Faruqi, Anthony Ray, Charlie Kim, Dermot Kiernan, Jon Lee Keenan, Matthew Tresler,
 Matthew Thomas, Michael Lichtenauer, Nate Widelitz, Robert Norman 

I’m thrilled to announce that my latest album – The Sacred Veil – is out today. Written over a period of three years with my best friend, poet Charles Anthony Silvestri (Tony), it’s a story of great beauty and love, loss and grief.

Writing The Sacred Veil felt profoundly important and the warm reception to the world premiere in Los Angeles, and the European premiere in London, meant the world to Tony and me. It’s a work that we are intensely proud of.

The album was recorded January 2020 in California. It features extraordinary performances from the Los Angeles Master Chorale, cellist Jeffrey Zeigler and pianist Lisa Edwards. I am proud to have worked with legendary producer, Elaine Martone, on this album and to be sharing it through Signum Records. This recording also represents the culmination of two memorable and artistically rewarding terms as Artist-in-Residence with the Los Angeles Master Chorale. Their achievement under Artistic Director, Grant Gershon, is a cultural beacon for our nation.

I hope you might have the chance to listen to The Sacred Veil.

Stay safe and well. ---Eric, ericwhitacre.com

Eric Whitacre’s The Sacred Veil is an accessible, melodic work for choir, piano and cello that tells the story of a woman’s death from cancer – a subject matter and musical style selected to incite feeling. The first movement, ‘The Veil Opens’, is quasi-religious (‘the sacred veil between the worlds’ alludes to an afterlife), with gently moving harmonies and plenty of unison lines, neatly performed by the Los Angeles Master Chorale. So far, so pedestrian.

But the work quietly develops into something more interesting: the sixth movement ‘I’m Afraid’ repeats the fragmented phrase ‘I’m afraid we’ve found something’, interspersing the unfinished sentence with medical terms ‘fifteen centimetre retroperitoneal cystic mass with complex internal septation…Metastasis’. The text was co-written by Whitacre and Charles Anthony Silvestri, whose wife Julie died of ovarian cancer at 36 in 2005. There is a pseudo-liturgical feel which recalls something of Karl Jenkins’s work, intensified by the subsequent call for prayers taken from Julie’s blog and a closing benediction. ---Claire Jackson, classical-music.com

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