Musica Sacra – Eternal Reflections: Choral Music of Robert Paterson (American Modern Recordings)

Kent Tritle, the conductor The New York Times calls “the brightest star in New York’s choral music world,” and award-winning composer Robert Paterson, who met as neighbors in New York City, have engaged in a first-rate artistic collaboration on the newest recording from Tritle’s venerable choir Musica Sacra. Recorded at New York’s Academy of Arts and Letters and produced by Grammy®-winning producer Adam Abeshouse, the album features eight works by Paterson and will be released on March 4 under the American Modern Recordings label distributed by NAXOS.

The recording features the world premiere of Lux Aeterna, a deeply moving setting of the classic devotional text that will be performed live for the first time at St. John the Divine [1047 Amsterdam Avenue, New York 10025] on March 4 at 7:30pm.

 

Tritle explained that “working on recording projects with living composers is essential to Musica Sacra’s mission to expand and modernize the world of choral music.” For Paterson’s part, he says that having his works recorded by a group that The New York Times has described as “just this side of perfection” is “as good as it gets.” 

 

In addition to Lux Aeterna, the album features two works originally commissioned by the Volti Choir of San Francisco: Eternal Reflections, atmospheric settings of texts by Czeslaw Milosz, Mary E. Frye, and Paul Lawrence Dunbar; and the buoyant three-movement piece The Essence of Gravity. Also included are A Dream within a Dream, a fluid, bittersweet setting of a text by Edgar Allen Poe, and the wild international riff on “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” Life is But A Dream, both originally commissioned by the Chamber Choir of Europe. The Suite from a New Earth, an impassioned four-movement exploration of environmental issues and global warming for orchestra, chorus, and narrator written for the VYOA Choir, sets texts by Wendell Berry, James Joyce, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and William Wordsworth. Youthful concerns bubble up in a pair of pieces with texts by David Cote: Did You Hear?, which addresses the life of teens and the consequences of rumors and gossip; and Snow Day, which expresses the joy of having an unexpected day off.

 

If you have any questions, or if you are interested in reviewing the album, please contact us.

 

All best,

 

Amanda Sweet and Kate Dreyfuss, Bucklesweet Media