Search - Gaudeamus, Halley :: Sacred Feast

Gaudeamus, Halley
Sacred Feast
Genres: Special Interest, Classical

Track Listings (13) - Disc #1
1. Beati Quorum Via, Op. 38/3
2. O vos omnes (O ye People)
3. Ubi caritas, motet for chorus, Op. 10/1
4. Justorum Animae. Op. 38/1
5. Coelis Ascendit Hodie, Op. 38/2
6. Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence for chorus & orchestra/organ
7. O sacrum convivium (also set as 'I call and cry to thee' and 'O sacred and holy banquet'), motet for 5 voices, P. 210
8. Ave Verum Corpus for chorus
9. Hail, Gladdening Light, for double choir
10. Ave Maria (unspecified)
11. Pater Noster, for 8-part chorus
12. Crucifixus
13. O sacrum convivium!, for voices, I/18

CD Details

All Artists: Gaudeamus, Halley
Title: Sacred Feast
Members Wishing: 0
Total Copies: 0
Label: Digital Music Prod
Release Date: 9/14/1999
Genres: Special Interest, Classical
Styles: Opera & Classical Vocal, Historical Periods, Baroque (c.1600-1750), Symphonies
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaCD Credits: 1
UPC: 089672052623

Synopsis

Amazon.com

To many listeners who remember Tom Jung's dmp label from the 1980s, when he and groups such as Flim & the BBs made pioneering and exemplary digital jazz recordings, this very classical, very (sacred) choral program may come as a surprise. But it will be a pleasant one, nonetheless. Choral enthusiasts will immediately recognize many of the selections, which represent some of choral music's most beloved masterpieces--Stanford's "Beati quorum via" and "Justorum animae" motets, Duruflé's incomparable "Ubi caritas," Bruckner's "Ave Maria," and Messiaen's "O sacrum convivium." They also will be happy to discover that the 30-voice Gaudeamus ensemble, a Connecticut-based group founded by director Paul Halley in 1992, performs to an exceptionally high standard, characterized by well-balanced sound, solid vocal technique, and generally rock-solid intonation. Only the Messiaen, and Tallis's own setting of "O sacrum convivium," reveal some shaky tuning, but the choir makes up for these lapses with sublime singing in the Stanford, Duruflé, and Bruckner--and really revels in the rich dissonances of Lotti's "Crucifixus" and in the soaring lines of Charles Woods's "Hail gladdening light." This is an admirable and highly recommendable venture into the very competitive--and often snooty--choral music arena for Jung and dmp. And those who know the label's uncompromising sonic standards will be reassured with this typically superb engineering effort that perfectly captures the choral sound and acoustics in Hartford's Trinity College Chapel--a structure reminiscent of a mini-King's College Cambridge. Unfortunately, dmp includes virtually nothing about the music in the liner notes. --David Vernier

CD Reviews

An unusually good compilation of sacred choral works

Bob Zeidler | Charlton, MA United States | 09/09/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Paul Halley, for many years a keyboardist, composer and arranger for Paul Winter and his Consort, has recently been devoting his activities primarily to choral music and to his own keyboard solo works. This album is the latest in his choral series that features the adult Guadeamus chorus, and it is a very good chorus, if not quite on the level of similar-sized (30 voices strong) a capella groups chosen, trained and directed by the late, great Robert Shaw.

The overwhelming strength of this album is its variety, and the taste with which Halley has chosen the selections offered. They range in time from Thomas Tallis and Antonio Lotti to Olivier Messiaen, and include works by Pablo Casals, Maurice Duruflé, Anton Bruckner and Sir Charles Villiers Stanford. None of pieces is sufficiently familiar to render the album a duplicate of selections offered up elsewhere, and they are creatively combined here.

All are sung well, but I would like to single out the Casals "Vos Omnes," Lotti's "Crucifixus" and Messiaen's "O Sacrum Convivium" for special mention, as well as Duruflé's "Ubi Caritas." This last piece, a gorgeous setting of Gregorian chant, is one which Halley had earlier adapted to the unique forces available to him at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in New York City, combining Gregorian and African chant (on his "Angel on a Stone Wall" album available at Amazon on the Living Music label). It is a pleasure to hear it as Duruflé had written it, on this album.

The liner notes regrettably shed absolutely no light on either the composers or the music, being instead a "vanity" presentationn of Halley's background and the recording techniques used for the album. (The sound is a little harsh, given the state-of-the-art equipment that was used.)

But five easy stars for the variety and ecumenicism of the selections offered.

Bob Zeidler"