Whitacre: Water Night - download (MP3 & FLAC)

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.

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.