Search - Mormon Tabernacle Choir :: 100 Years: Celebrating a Century of Recording Excellence

An important milestone...and a terrific "bonus"

Customer Bob | USA | 06/15/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"There aren't many musical ensembles around today that can claim a 100-year history of commercial recording. Even fewer have maintained such a high standard of performing and recording excellence over that century! This is an extraordinary achievement, and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir thoroughly deserves to be honored for it. It's a bit of a shame, though, that the Choir is left to mark the anniversary by itself. This is the kind of milestone that the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (or a similar organization) should be trumpeting with fanfares and fireworks. Oh well.



This three-disc anniversary collection is comprised mostly of previously-released tracks drawn from the Choir's recordings of about the last decade or so. It's definitely a "Best Of..." compilation, filled with favorites, most-requested items, significant works, etc., but there is also a handful of newly-recorded tracks and new releases. The Choir has fairly recently adopted "Betelehemu" as a signature work, and it's always a show-stopper. This live performance is from a recent Christmas concert. Wilberg's simple and moving arrangement of "Danny Boy" has been sung by the Choir for some years, but this is the first time they've recorded it. The two other new tracks--"Glorious Everlasting" and "All People that on Earth do Dwell"--are with organ accompaniment; a tribute to the traditional sound of the Choir with the Tabernacle organ that characterized their performances for most of the 20th century (before the formation of the Orchestra at Temple Square). The rest of the tracks include all the favorites any fan of the Choir would want to hear: "Battle Hymn of the Republic," "Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing," "Amazing Grace," "Come, Come Ye Saints," "God Be With You," "Climb Ev'ry Mountain," the "Hallelujah" chorus from Messiah, and so on. It's a pretty impressive collection.



Folks who already own many of the Choir's recent recordings will appreciate having all their favorite tracks on two disks instead of twenty. It's a varied sampler of the Choir's work over the last decade, and certainly worth owning. Aficionados of the Choir might even try a party game--pick which tracks were recorded in the Conference Center and which were in the Tabernacle, just by listening to the ambient acoustics on the recording! (It is, indeed, possible to hear a difference.) But for those who don't own many Tabernacle Choir recordings, this compilation is an excellent introduction.



The real delight here, though, is the "bonus" CD/DVD. It includes the first Telstar satellite broadcast from Mt. Rushmore in 1962, the Choir's first wax cylinder recording made back in 1910 (which sounds extraordinarily impressive!), and recordings made by each of the Choir's directors over the last 100 years: Evan Stevens, Anthony Lund, Spencer Cornwall, Richard Condie, Jerold Ottley, Craig Jessop, and Mack Wilberg. (Only Jay Welch--who was Director for only 6 months in 1974--is missing, presumably because he made no recordings while Director.) There is footage of each of the three announcers for the Choir's record-setting weekly radio broadcast--"Music and the Spoken Word"--as well as video of most of the Choir's recent directors: Wilberg, Jessop, Ottley, and Condie. The TV footage of the Choir singing at Reagan's 1981 presidential inaugural shows that satellite links were as prone to breaking up in 1981 as they were in 1962! But as a historical document that illustrates the Choir's achievements over the last 100 years, this bonus disk is simply marvelous, and worth the price of the entire collection. It's this CD/DVD that's the real gem in this set; the other two audio CDs are the "bonus," in my opinion.

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