Search - Leos Janacek :: Janácek: Choruses for Male Voices

A Beautiful Recording Like No Other

Timothy Kearney | Hull, MA United States | 10/15/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If you were to survey a large number of people and ask "What's in your CD player today?" chances are the answer would not be Janacek's CHORUSES FOR MALE VOICES, but anyone who has heard this recording will attest that it has a haunting, beautiful quality to it and can be a great addition to a recording collection. The pieces on this recording were written by the composer for the Moravian Teachers Choir. The current members of the ensemble perform the work on this disc issued by Naxos. The quality of the singing on the disc, by performers who are largely amateur (it's safe to assume some members of the choir have to be music teachers which would make them professional musicians though not necessarily professional performers), is excellent. The pieces themselves are performed a Capella and while they sound rather difficult to perform, but the excellence is evident. They have somewhat of a chant quality to them, which may be due to Janacek's training in his younger years as a chorister at an Augustinian monastery.



Once again Naxos has issued a disc of music that major labels would likely ignore which is a gift for music lovers. Another bonus of this disc is a booklet that not only gives background information about the composer and music, but the words of the choruses in both Czech and English.

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