It can be stated categorically that if you've ever wanted to hear the Shaker song "Simple Gifts" (not attributed its actual composer, Joseph Brackett) sung with a full-fledged German accent, this is your best chance, and you get to hear it not once but twice, once with the men of the Rundfunkchor Berlin, and once with the women. Americans are going to smile at this, but regard this Simple Gifts disc as an experiment rather than as an idiomatic performance, and it comes off a good deal better. It is not a recording of ...
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It can be stated categorically that if you've ever wanted to hear the Shaker song "Simple Gifts" (not attributed its actual composer, Joseph Brackett) sung with a full-fledged German accent, this is your best chance, and you get to hear it not once but twice, once with the men of the Rundfunkchor Berlin, and once with the women. Americans are going to smile at this, but regard this Simple Gifts disc as an experiment rather than as an idiomatic performance, and it comes off a good deal better. It is not a recording of American choral favorites but a reflection on the relationship between American and English music, and on the effects of American vernacular music on the two classical traditions. The music is mostly for chorus and piano, with soloists featured in some works. After a collection of Britten pieces come Michael Tippett's Five Negro Spirituals -- curious pieces too for listeners with the originals in their blood, but fascinating to hear in this context. Tippett said he treated the spirituals...
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