Gramophone – September 2019

gramophone.co.uk GRAMOPHONESEPTEMBER 2019 III

SOUNDS OF AMERICA

periodensembles,theOttawaBachChoir,
conducted by founding director Lisette
Canton, have combined with Matthias
Maute’s Ensemble Caprice from Montreal
in eloquent, persuasive performances of
Handel, Schütz and Bach. The two have
teamed up before, most notably in 2016,
when they played in Beijing and Shanghai,
and this is reflected in how easily they move
to the heart of the music’s spiritual message,
and how organically they integrate their
HIP knowledge in order to communicate
that message.
Their performance of Handel’s Dixit
Dominus also gets the young composer’s
precocious power and the passion of his
utterances. From the exuberant, rigorous
physicality of the opening chorus and the
clear enunciation of the singing, the choir
sing as if the words were actually being
listened to and reflected upon by an
engaged congregation.
The Canadian countertenor Daniel
Taylor’s sweet-toned singing of ‘Virgam
virtutis tuae’ is one of a number of lovely
vocal contributions, another being sopranos
Kayla Ruiz and Kathleen Radka’s exquisite
‘De torrente in via bibet’. There is splendid
instrumental work throughout, including
Jean-Christophe Lisette’s cello solo in
the ‘Virgam’. And the choir show their
virtuosity and staying power in the fugue
that concludes the ‘Gloria Patri, et Filio’.

One of the inest ensembles of their kind: the Jitro CzechGirlsChoirbringjoytothemusicofPetrEben

TheSchützsongsaresimilarlyvivid

andengaged,butevensothegrandeurof

Bach’smotetisstaggeringandmovingly

performed.Thesoundiscaptured

splendidlybyMontreal’sownATMA

Classiquelabelintheaudiophilespaceof

Saint-Jean-BaptisteChurchinOttawa.

LaurenceVittes

Eben

‘InHeaven’

LiturgicalChants.ChorusesonLatin

Texts.Catonismoralia.TenPoetic

Duets.AboutSwallowsandGirls

JitroCzechGirlsChoir/ Jiří Skopal

NavonaFNV6228(56’• DDD)

Recorded1995

An entire disc

running close to an

hour devoted to pieces

for girls’ chorus, either

a cappella or accompanied by piano or

organ, might seem like too much of a good

thing. When the pieces are by Petr Eben

(1929-2007), however, this is resoundingly

not the case. The five rather appealing sets

of choral songs gathered on this nicely

produced disc are diverse in character,

mixing the sacred and the secular, setting

either Latin (Catonis moralia, Choruses on

Latin Texts, Liturgical Chants) or Czech

(About Swallows and Girls, Poetic Duets).

Eben would have celebrated his

90th birthday this year and is still best

remembered as a formidable organist and

composer for his instrument, yet his output

of vocal and choral music is extensive and

impressive. The Liturgical Chants (1960)

are part of a sequence of sacred works

published in several volumes from 1955,

the present set comprising an Introitus,

Graduale, Evangelium, Offertorium

and Communio built around Psalm 29.

The music, as in all these pieces, is stylish

without seeming so, the brightness of the

girls’ voices at odds with the gravity of

the texts, yet it all works very nicely. The

same is true of the Choruses on Latin Texts

(1973; it is not explained why only the first

three are given here) and Catonis moralia

(1974-75), the latter setting third-century

texts based on Cato, the five movements

structured like a Baroque suite.

The Jitro Girls Choir are one of the

finest ensembles of the kind and their

performances are delightful throughout,

a testament to Ji∑í Skopal’s firm direction.

The two early-ish Czech-language cycles,

the Ten Poetic Duets (1965, with piano

accompaniment) and About Swallows and

Girls (1959-60) bring out their most joyful

singing, caught in bright if unspectacular

sound. Guy Rickards