This release by the choir Conspirare earned a 2022 Grammy award nomination for Best Classical Choral Performance, and the choir, with its rounded American sound, is in fine form here under the direction of Craig Hella Johnson. He also contributes a small compositional epilogue, but there is more on display here besides fine choral singing. Except in Johnson's piece at the end, which is attractive but does not really sum up the music on the rest of the album, Conspirare is accompanied by either four (the Los Angeles Guitar ...
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This release by the choir Conspirare earned a 2022 Grammy award nomination for Best Classical Choral Performance, and the choir, with its rounded American sound, is in fine form here under the direction of Craig Hella Johnson. He also contributes a small compositional epilogue, but there is more on display here besides fine choral singing. Except in Johnson's piece at the end, which is attractive but does not really sum up the music on the rest of the album, Conspirare is accompanied by either four (the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet) or 12 guitars (the massed forces of the Los Angeles group plus the Texas and Austin Guitar Quartets). A photo in the booklet shows the guitarists in front of the choir as if they were a little orchestra. This is an unusual combination, and the contemporary composers here -- Reena Esmail, Nico Muhly, and Kile Smith -- handle it with the excitement of having found something new. In Muhly's piece, with 12 guitarists available, they sometimes take on the effect of a harp; in...
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