カントス・サグラドス

北アイルランドの指揮者クリストファー・ベルが1996年から音楽監督を務めるナショナル・ユース・クワイア・オヴ・スコットランド(NYCoS)。16歳から25歳までの有望な若者たちが歌う、新しい合唱レパートリー。
東京エムプラス

This release from the National Youth Choir of Scotland and Royal Scottish National Orchestra under Christopher Bell fits a common pattern: it offers music from various parts of the British Isles and beyond. Yet the singers, musicians, and conductor seem intent on stretching the pattern with unusually sharp and diverse music. The titular Cantos Sagrados (Sacred Songs) of James MacMillan have been recorded before, but the vigorous performance here of these not-strictly-sacred songs (the texts include political elements) may come closest to the spirit of the work. Eric Whitacres Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine, with a text in English and Italian by Charles Anthony Silvestri, is an unusually narrative work for this composer, imagining a dream of Leonardo da Vinci, while the same composers When David Heard is a highly dramatic setting of that age-old motet text (When David heard that Absalom was slain...). Thea Musgraves On the Underground, Set 2: The Strange and the Exotic imagines, among other things, piranhas invading a subway car, while Eriks Esenvalds Amazing Grace was inspired by none other than the late Whitney Houston. Michael Tippetts Five Spirituals come from the World War II-era oratorio A Child of Our Time and fulfill a chorale-like function in that work. So, with the exception of the gentle Ave Maria that closes the program, all of these works are essentially one of a kind. They fire the imaginations of the youthful Scottish singers, whose performances are both clean and enthusiastic. Clear sound from the New Auditorium of the Royal Glasgow Concert Hall is an attraction and enhances text intelligibility, which is paramount. One of the best choral releases issued in the coronavirus year of 2020.