天の夜明け

イギリスを代表する少女合唱団、ペンブルック・カレッジ少女合唱団!

音楽家としてだけでなく多方面でその才能を開花させているアナ・ラップウッド!
現代作曲家たちによる新作から知られざる名曲まで美しく歌い上げます!

ペンブルック・カレッジ少女合唱団は、2018年10月に設立されるとすぐにイギリスを代表する少女合唱団として評価されました。11歳から18歳の18人のメンバーで構成されている合唱団は大学のチャペルで週二回歌うほか、大学の合唱団と共に定期的に演奏会を行っています。
アナ・ラップウッドはわずか21歳でケンブリッジ大学ペンブルック・カレッジの音楽監督に就任した指揮者でありオルガン奏者で、ヨーロッパ各地でオルガン・リサイタルを行っています。また司会者としても活躍しており、2020/21のBBCヤング・ミュージシャンや2021年のBBCプロムスに出演しました。
このアルバムでは、これまでにあまり録音されていない作品や新しい編曲の作品、新作の初演を含んでおり、現代作曲家の作品を中心にペンブルック・カレッジ少女合唱団の美しい歌声を収録しています。
東京エムプラス

The Pembroke College Girls Choir is of a quite recent vintage, having been founded by director Anna Lapwood in 2018. Although based at Cambridge Universitys Pembroke College, it consists not of university students but of girls ages 11 to 18, gathered from secondary schools in the area. The singers vocal blend is impeccable, even under pandemic-time social distancing restrictions. The album was recorded in the Pembroke College Chapel, which necessitated certain adjustments to the chapels organ, and as Lapwood puts it, "the more familiar choral staples on this album wont necessarily sound exactly as theyre expected to in the English choral tradition. They do, however, sound like the Pembroke choral tradition, and, for me, that was the important thing." That exemplifies the whole attitude here. The sound is traditional but has an entirely novel flavor, even over and beyond the fact that the choir consists of girls rather than boys. Especially ingenious is the program, quite characteristic of the values and tastes of young people. It mixes Mendelssohn and other traditional fare with a variety of contemporary material, including works by both Nadia and Lili Boulanger and Harry T. Burleigh (whose O Perfect Love shows few signs of African American vernacular influence). Burleighs output remains largely unexplored except for some spiritual arrangements, and this is a valuable work to have. Lapwood indicates that a subsidiary aim of Celestial Dawn, beyond redressing the imbalance between boys and girls in the English choral tradition, is to bring into circulation some lesser-known pieces, and she has really done yeomans (or yeo-womans) work in finding these, getting the girl choristers to connect with them, and incorporating them into an essentially traditional program. Sample and consider Light of the World by jazz composer John Dankworth. An entirely distinctive release that will be treasured by lovers of English choral singing. ~ James Manheim