Requiem - Works by Pizzetti, Howells, Grantham etc
Conspirare / Johnson
Harmonia Mundi HMU807518

Release date July 2009

An ensemble of professional singers, Conspirare is recognised as one of the United States' premier choral ensembles. They made this recording in 2005 in the visually and acoustically splendid surroundings of the historic Troy Savings Bank Music Hall in New York. The disc was originally issued on the Clarion label, but has now been reissued by Harmonia Mundi. What drew me initially to the recording was the choral sound – darker than the traditional ‘British’ sound, very much alive, warm and mellow, beautifully blended and yet full of character – and, crucially, adapting to the work being performed. They transform Howells’ Requiem, an intimate and luminously mystical work, from something pure and remote into a warmer, still ethereal and yet at the same time comforting memorial. The long legato lines of the Requiem aeternam are sustained effortlessly, the voices attentive to the dynamics without being fussy, and the female solos in particular beautifully judged. Pizzetti’s Messa di Requiem is the other substantial work on the disc. Dating from 1922, ten years or so before the Howells, it’s an appealing mixture of sixteenth-century counterpoint and post-Romantic harmonies, emotionally potent but difficult to bring off. The long Dies irae section can end up sounding somewhat tedious in unenlightened hands, but conductor Craig Hella Johnson keeps the music focused and moving forward, the men’s marked, incisive treatment of the chant contrasting with the decorative line spun by the upper voices, the singers employing rich vibrato in the fuller sections but tender tones in the more relaxed moments. The effect of the Sanctus is as of daylight suddenly appearing, and the wide dynamic range of the hosannas is graded well, although at the loudest moments I found the recorded sound slightly congested. The two Whitacre pieces, based on e.e.cummings texts, are typical of his style. Hope, faith, life, love is a meditation with lush chromatic harmonies, while I thank You God is a more flowing song – very American in style, yet filled with Whitacre hallmarks. Stephen Paulus’s The Road Home is almost gospel music, and while Eliza Gilkyson’s short and simple piano-accompanied Requiem has an American sugar feel to it, it is undeniably effective. I enjoyed this disc enormously, and hope this ensemble visits the UK soon.

Reviewed by Anne McAlister