Living Voices: The Music of James Whitbourn

SKU: GI.G-CD-883

UPC: 747313273775.

James Whitbourn is known for his 'boundless breadth of choral imagination' (The Observer) resulting in compositions of brilliance and power. His extraordinary work for choir, saxophone and organ, Son of God Mass, receives a new recording from the young voices of one of the finest chamber choirs from Rider University's Westminster Choir College under one of the leading American choral conductors, James Jordan. It is heard alongside premiere recordings of other works associated with life and death, including the Requiem canticorum and Living Voices, a work to commemorate the date of 9/11 with a poem by Andrew Motion. The luminosity and sheer beauty of Whitbourn's composing style is brought to unusual heights by the skills of the Williamson Voices and their conductor, James Jordan. The entire album is a collection of choral music with a spiritual center. The composer's use of saxophone and organ, interweaving with those lovely young Westminster voices, attain a kind of choral glory unusual for any music, extraordinary for 'contemporary' music. The album soothes, stretches, pulls the listener to places of fascination and high emotion, captivates and can often amaze. It is an exalted achievement. — Roger Ames A truly stunning recording.