Listening to this new CD was a sublime pleasure, I was immediately struck by the beauty of the choral tone, at once warm and pure. The repertoire is a magnificent blending of the familiar... with previously unrecorded works of John Corigliano, Conrad Susa, and Jean Belmont. This recording is a necessity for all choral conductors. It represents the best of choral singing and introduces some fine new works. Choral Journal

This collection opens with a group of four songs scored for three-part women's chorus and the unusual combination of two horns and harp. They are settings of an interesting spread of poems including one by Ossian and the Clown's song from the thrid act of Twelfth Night. Other items include Three Songs Op. 42, Two Motets, Op. 29 and, to finish with, one of the songs from Brahms much loved 'Neue Liebeslieder Waltzes', Op. 65.

In this their fifth recording for Nimbus, the Kansas City Chorale are very much on their home turf, with a programme of American sacred music, which includes Randall Thompson's famous Alleluia.

A program of Christmas music by American composers, the Kansas City Chorale sings pieces from the late nineteenth century to the present. Composers include Ned Rorem, Norman Dello Joio and Charles Ives. This recording also contains several premier recordings, including 'Nativitas' by Jean Belmont. This cycle of eight choral cameos depicts the ceremony of Christmas with texts from the fourth through seventeenth centuries. According to the composer, 'The intent in 'Nativitas' is to create a musical shape which conveys some of the anticipation, reverence, mysticism and celebration surrounding the Birth of Jesus Christ.' This is a great alternative to traditional Christmas recordings.

The Grechaninov 'Passion Week' is a setting of thirteen pieces with texts in Church Slavonic meant to be sung individually over the period of Passion Week, the days leading up to the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. The Russian Orthodox Church has a tradition of morning and evening services during Passion Week when the passion week's events are recalled almost in 'real time.' The music itself is generally slow, meditative, largely monophonic and almost trance-like. One notices that the usual number of singers in these two choirs has been supplemented by several additional basses, no surprise considering the long legato lines required of that section. Their low C's and even B's resound like the tolling of great bells throughout the work. One could almost surmise, if one didn't know, that this was the singing of a Russian choir, so noted for their deep basses, except that the blending and rounding of the choral tone is so very much more subtle than is generally heard from Russian choruses. The work is entirely a cappella and there are occasional soprano, tenor and baritone solos which consist mostly of chants sung against the main body of massed sound.

'The massed forces of the Phoenix Bach Choir and Kansas City Chorale 'make a formidable choral machine' (BBC Music Magazine) and the choirs under the baton of Charles Bruffy here present a collection of unaccompanied sacred choral works by Josef Rheinberger. The disc includes the only available recordings of his Oster-Hymne for double chorus and Four Six-part Motets, op.133. The Oster-Hymne is a setting of two ancient Easter texts, particularly the famous sequence Victimae paschali laudes. During his lifetime, Rheinberger was lauded as a talented performer, prolific composer and masterful teacher. He observed that his primary consideration in music 'is that it shall be beautiful; music that does not sound beautiful has no attraction for me'.