July 11, 2016

  • A New Te Deum

     

    Kaviani: Te Deum
    Prague Mixed Chamber Choir/Jiri Petrdlik;
    Janacek Opera Choir; Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra/Petr Vronsky
    Ravello Records 7937
    Total Time:  29:51
    Recording:   ***/****
    Performance: (*)**/****

    Nicolas Kaviani studied with David Cope at UC-Santa Cruz and in Avignon, France.  Here he takes on a familiar text with a massive forces and soloists.  The Te Deum opens with a long and slow building crescendo that soon opens into a large choral statement.  The orchestral writing tends to be relatively conservative, closer more to late-18th Century style, though once the “Sanctus” section appears the music seems to be more closely aligned between classic Renaissance choral style with Romantic inflections.  This results in massive washes of sound with unisonal writing between choir and orchestra for extra support.  It is an overall interesting work with at times almost Brucknerian harmonic shifts and swells.  The music seems to climax a bit soon around 20 minutes in with another regrouping before a final push to the end.  Here the choral writing is interesting.

    The hardest part though is that much of the text is very difficult to understand, an issue perhaps more with the chorus and miking, though this is not an uncommon problem with works of this type.  Though the work unfolds over the course of 25 minutes, there are some edits that might have been smoother suggesting it having been recorded section-to-section.  In writing religious music one has to run the risk of being either too avant-garde or to anachronistic.  Kaviani’s work tends to be more towards the latter suggesting an ease of grabbing the listener in a more traditional religious setting.  The performance here feels like it needs just a bit more time to get more familiar with the work and grasp the style explored here.  The choir feels like it is straining in the forte moments especially, but the quieter sections are often stunning.

    Tous Les Matins du Monde (2014) is a brief work for 16 unaccompanied voices.  The music here is based on more dissonant clusters that unfold and are more intense as they come together and then flow back out into more chant-like statements.  It is not quite like Lauridsen.  The close harmonies are part of the work’s challenge here needing a full tone reproduction.  The result has a rather mystifying quality in this brief work.

    The presentation here is a bit short musically, but that is due to an accompanying DVD that provides further background on this project.  Those interested in something new for their choral groups would likely find this an interesting piece to try as it is often quite beautiful and has some nice solo work.