Search - John Newton, Richard Rodgers, Karl Zollner :: Vienna Choir Boys: Amazing Grace

With Amazing Grace, the Vienna Choir Boys have released an interesting collection tending down a path different from that of their usual repertoire. The legendary institution--with members regularly chosen by some of the greatest conductors for boy-choir parts in music by Mozart, Bach, and Mahler, as well as Bernstein--was founded half a millennium ago, and a number of famous musicians have been alumni of this almost peerless ensemble through the centuries. Here, they sing a marketable soup of international songs and traditional folk melodies from around the world. Typical of the songs on this disc is the Japanese tune "Sakura," which blends a popular oriental melody with Western harmony and culturally idiomatic-sounding instruments. Another particularly gripping work is an arrangement of the liturgical Hebrew folk song "Hevenu Shalom Aleichem." Traditionally, this piece is sung on the Sabbath, but the energetic version here is more suited to a grand festival (one can easily imagine the accelerando dance refrain repeating to a frenzy during a bar mitzvah or a Jewish wedding celebration). The varied program demonstrates the VCB's relatively recent expansion into world music--not to mention a broader audience (they have also recorded soundtracks for such films as Primal Fear)--which might raise red flags for the purist. But with the VCB--under financial pressure (like so many other nonprofit concert ensembles today) and seeking a more popular audience by expanding their repertoire--there is nothing to forgive. This beautiful, shameless, sometimes fun, even on occasion thought-provoking collection benefits from the ensemble's impeccable standards. --W.T. Arnold