Whitacre: Water Night

Eric Whitacre follows the Grammy-winning success of his debut Decca album, Light and Gold (2743209), with Water Night, a brand new album that features no less than seven World Premiere Recordings. Light and Gold was awarded ‘Best Choral Performance’ in February 2012 at the 54th Grammy Awards for Whitacre’s first recording as both composer and conductor. This second disc for Decca juxtaposes music written as a young composer alongside brand new repertoire, both choral and orchestral, displaying the different influences and styles of Whitacre.

The Eric Whitacre Singers positively shimmer on these world premiere recordings of “Alleluia” and “Oculi Omnium”, two of the brand new works alongside one of the greats of his oeuvre, “Her Sacred Spirit Soars”. “Equus” is played by the full forces of the London Symphony Orchestra.

By way of contrast, “The River Cam” is a beautiful, pastoral piece that demonstrates Nevada-born Whitacre’s absorption of the works of Elgar and Vaughan Williams during his time in the UK as a visiting Fellow at Cambridge University. It was written at the invitation of the distinguished cellist, Julian Lloyd Webber, to mark his 60th birthday in 2011, who also gives the performance here.

An unexpected gem of the album is a setting of Goodnight Moon, the multi-million selling American children’s book by Margaret Wise Brown (Harper Collins). Written for soprano and strings, this tender piece is performed by Hila Plitmann, a Grammy-winning artist with great commitment to contemporary music.

The title track, “Water Night”, is one of Eric Whitacre’s most performed works, heard on this album performed by the strings of the London Symphony Orchestra.

Eric Whitacre’s dedication to the beauty of sound, paired with exquisite texts, results in a poetic combination that creates a unique sonic experience.

These works are existential choral moments, beautifully crafted, and harmonised to express a compressed moment in time. Such sublime sonorities transcend descriptions such as ‘warm’, ‘glistening’ or ‘shimmering’, although these features of his choral works do suggest affinities with the sound worlds of Arvo Pärt or John Tavener, for instance.

However, Whitacre’s fluid lines and blossoming harmonies give his music its own highly personal and irresistible magic.

“The only fully professional church choir in Canada, and, clearly, an energetic and inspiring team.” BBC Music Magazine

Eric Whitacre has a sure instinct when it comes to writing music beyond any kind of avant-gardism in the 21st century: he is representative of a generation of composers who consider tonality and music’s accessibility a crucial feature of their works. The Junges Vokalensemble Hannover translates this instinct into sound, and unfolds the compositions’ colourfulness with an exceptional level of artistic mastery.

The works are written with the clear ideals of performability and feasibility in the composer’s mind, making Whitacre’s music particularly interesting to ambitioned non-professional choirs such as the Junges Vokalensemble Hannover. Probably the best-known of Whitacre’s works recorded on this disc is his Lux Aurumque. This work was composed in 2001 and sets to music the poem Light and Gold by the American poet Edward Esch, a meditation on the birth of Christ and the light. Hope, Faith, Life, Love..., Cloudburst, and Five Hebrew Love Songs are also recorded on the present disc.

Eric Whitacre (b. 1970), accomplished composer, conductor and lecturer, is one of the most popular and performed composers of his generation. His published works – of which “Sleep,” “Cloudburst,” “Lux Aurumque” and “Water Night” are among the most popular in the modern repertoire – have sold over a million copies worldwide. Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings, Eric’s cutting-edge musical, has won the ASCAP Harold Arlen award, the prestigious Richard Rodgers Award and 10 Ovation Award nominations. In the US he is greeted with “rock star adulation” (New York Times) and his Virtual Choir projects have given him a worldwide following on YouTube, marking a new digital age for classical music (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7o7BrlbaDs). In 2010 he signed to Decca, and is published by Chester Music.

Light and Gold is a mixture of works from the Whitacre catalogue alongside three World Premiere recordings of new pieces, all of them freshly recorded for the occasion. It's the perfect gateway through which new listeners can experience the allure of Whitacre's music for the first time, while giving existing fans pristine new recordings of some of his most successful pieces, tailored by the composer himself. "This album is the first time that I've ever conducted on record my interpretations of my own pieces," Whitacre explains. "The new pieces haven't been recorded before. Previous recordings of the older works have always been nice, but they've never been exactly what I was hoping they would be. That's the most interesting part for me; it's finally a chance to say it the way I'd like to say it." The pieces on the disc are performed by the British chamber choir, Laudibus, alongside Whitacre’s newly-created vocal group, the Eric Whitacre Singers.

Cantatrix is an ensemble aiming for the highest level of choral singing. In their first CD the singers present a programme of mainly contemporary music. The principal characteristic of the repertoire in this recording is the high degree of variety, resulting in, you’ve guessed it, contrasts.

A glorious collection of choral works from Britain and America, including works by Macmillan, Howells and Bingham. Also featured on this recording is an American composer, Whitacre, who has been taking the Choral world by storm. His compositions have been described as “works of unearthly beauty and imagination…with electric, chilling harmonies” This disc will surely bring this wonderful music out of the darkness and into the light.