Karl Jenkins: Gloria, Te Deum

世界で最も演奏される作曲家、カール・ジェンキンスの最新作「グローリア」
「作曲家として、彼はどんな境界も意識していないー音楽的、商業的、地理的、文化的な。彼は完全に時代の精神にぴたりと合った思考と作曲方法の人だ。」（クラシカルFM）
世界的に注目をあびるカール・ジェンキンスの新作の登場です。この作品の初演は2010年7月11日（本CD発売の前日）、ロンドンのロイヤル・アルバート・ホールで英国最大の合唱協会であるThe Really Big Chorus他により行われる予定で、EMIが「Abbey Road Live」という名称で取り組む、当日のライブ音源を当夜に演奏者と聴衆に限定して販売する企画の初の試みという実験的な話題も提供している。
今回のアルバムはその「グローリア」のスタジオ収録した音源で、2008年作曲の「テ・デウム」との組み合わせでの発売する作品。「グローリア」はキリスト教のラテン文をテキストとした5楽章からなり、各楽章間にヒンドゥー教、仏教、道教、イスラム教の言葉を読み上げるパートを持つ興味深い作品。「テ・デウム」はアンブロジアン・ヒムとしても知られ、キリスト教のラテン文をテキストとして作曲され、リヴァプールでの初演で「喜ばしく、シアトリカルな音楽作品」（リヴァプール・エコー紙）と評されている。
EMIミュージック・ジャパン

Beginning with The Armed Man, his take on the Renaissance L'homme arme tradition, British crossover composer Karl Jenkins achieved rapidly mounting popularity. By 2010 it was claimed that he was the world's most often performed living composer. It is still true that if you're looking for subtlety you're in the wrong place in the Jenkins section, but it is now becoming equally clear why he has become more than a flash in the pan and why his simple structures do not cloy or wear out their welcome. They are never sentimental; he never asks of them more than they can reasonably deliver; and he has continued to develop certain adjunct ideas -- broad multicultural gestures most obviously, but also a particular take on the textures of older British band music -- in consistent and solid ways. The result in the case of the Gloria featured on this release is unusually satisfying. Jenkins breaks up his usual sequence of big, brassy, quartal-sounding movements and quiet ones in which the choir circles around a core of three or four notes, inserting short (30- to 45-second) readings of scripture from Hindu, Buddhist, Taoist, and Islamic traditions. "Ethnic percussion" vaguely associated with these faiths permeates the work as a whole, and Jenkins takes things one step further here with a movement called "The Song," setting texts cobbled together from Psalm 144 and other biblical texts. The reedy voice of the young New Zealand soprano Hayley Westenra is beautifully deployed here, adding a burnished shade to the pastels of Jenkins' quieter movements. The whole thing doesn't necessarily sound as though it would hang together, but thanks to the basic simplicity of the materials it does, and it suggests a sincere ecumenism on the composer's part. The Te Deum that rounds out the disc is a bit less successful; Jenkins works better on a large canvas than on a small one. But the percussion rhythms in the big opening movement, repeated at the end, suggest new directions for his music. Recorded in April 2010 (you can get an idea of the blocklike quality of Jenkins' music by noting that the choral and orchestral parts were recorded on separate occasions), this disc was on sale by August of that year; clearly Jenkins can get the British recording establishment to move, well, heaven and earth. But their investment should be well repaid; this release will more than satisfy Jenkins fans and should get him some new ones. Notes are in English only; texts for all the music are given in their original languages (in transliteration only where the originals are in other kinds of writing) and in English translation.