Review: Over the past few years, listeners have been treated to a number of excellent recordings of the music of Juan Gutierrez de Padilla (c.1590-1664)... As many now know, Padilla was maestro de capilla at Cadiz Cathedral before sailing for the New World, where he became the musical chief at Puebla Cathedral in Mexico. This recording by the Los Angeles Chamber Singers' Cappella (their second Padilla disc) features the composer's sacred works for double choir. As on their earlier Padilla disc, the Los Angeles Chamber Singers' Cappella show themselves to be a precision instrument, and they sing this music with big-voiced power, rhythmic security, and tonal beauty. There are some terrific works on this recording. While Padilla's Missa Ave Regina is the largest-scale work on the disc, it's the motets that leave the biggest impression. His Dixit Dominus is wonderfully sonorous, the Exsultate iusti features voices imitating the sounds of instruments, and the Ave Regina shifts harmonies in a challenging manner. Perhaps the out-and- out masterpiece is his Salve Regina, characterized by beautiful long phrases that give way to rhythmic fireworks, a piece that features, as well, some interesting word painting. In sum, this is a terrific recording by a top-notch ensemble.

Songlist: Felix Namque, Exsultate Iusti In Domino, Dixit Dominus, Salve Regina, Sancta Et Immaculata, Ave Regina Caelorum, Missa Ave Regina, Pater Peccavi, Domine Dominus Noster

Review: Los Angeles Chamber Singers' Cappella was founded by director Peter Rutenberg in 1993 and performs a cappella musical literature from the 15th, 16th and early 17th centuries, in period vocal style. Many of the 19 mixed-voice singers are accomplished soloists, studio musicians, composers and choral directors in their own right. In addition to standard masterworks of the period by Lassus, Palestrina, Byrd, Victoria, Tallis, Josquin and others, the ensemble enjoys seeking out and performing significant but rarely heard, or recently rediscovered works. There are 13 pieces here by Juan Gutierrez de Padilla (1590-1664), who is rightly remembered as a master polychoralist, intense contrapuntalist and richly colorful harmonist. His work is seen as the first flowerings of Mexico's Golden Age, which reached full bloom with the music of Zumaya and Jerusalem 100 years later. "Deus in adiutorium meum intende," the five wonderfully harmonic movements ("Kyrie," "Gloria," "Credo," "Sanctus" and "Agnus Dei") of "Missa Ego flos campi," "Versa est in luctum," "Lamentations for Maundy Thursday," "Velum templi scissum est" and "Mirabilia testimonia tua" - these are soaring harmonic poems, designed to be sung in a cathedral's vast acoustics, to allow the worshippers to close their eyes and hear the sounds of angels. Extensive liner notes translate the lyrics and include a comprehensive history of the composer. Stunningly beautiful!

Songlist: Deus in adiutorium meum intende, Missa Ego flos campi:, Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Agnus Dei, Circumdederunt me dolores mortis, Versa est in luctum, Transfige, dulcissime Domine, Lamentations for Maundy Thursday, Velum templi scissum est, Vidi turbam magnam, Mirabilia testimonia tua

Los Angeles Chamber Singers : Romancero Gitano   

Review: The Castelnuovo-Tedesco work comes as one of my bigger surprises of recent times: written in 1951 upon powerful and emotional texts by Garcia Lorca (translations included in the CD booklet) Romancero Gitano, op. 152 proves to be genuinely attractive work, its wide guitaristic range well essayed by Gregory Newton, whose style suits well the composer's familiar refinement and musical craftsmanship. Is this song accompaniment? Or is it a concerto with voices instead of instruments? Whichever way you look at it, here is an interesting and substantial piece by one of the guitar's 20th century luminaries. Newton is to be congratulated on this revelation (for me, at least), his accomplished playing complementing a fine choir and thus providing a most listenable and substantial item with a real difference. A fascinating timelessness pervades Morten Lauridsen's purely vocal Chansons based on poems by Rilke: simply put, they are quite beautiful in both construction and execution, the eventual arrival of the piano in the fifth (and last) a miniature masterstroke. The Samuel Barber work is as rich as it is brief, while the set of madrigals by Halsey Stevens reveals a fine sonority, as does the group of odes by Randall Thompson: the notes mention that he felt that "a composer's first responsibility is... to write music that will reach and move the hearts of his listeners in his own day." A not unworthy aspiration, and with composition of this ilk it is easy to see how he could justifiably have had the confidence to utter such words. John Chorbajian's Bitter for Sweet, a setting of a Christina Rossetti poem, concludes and - like the music throughout this disc - was all the more touching for its stringency, quite delightful. So, there's only guitar on the Castelnuovo-Tedesco, but that in itself is worth the admission fee: elsewhere the felicitous blend of fine music and equally fine singing makes this CD a pleasing surprise, one to recommend wholeheartedly.

Songlist: Baladilla de los tres rios, La Guitarra, Punal, Procesion - Paso - Saeta, Memento, Baile, Crotalo, En Une Seule Fleur, Contre Qui, Rose, De Ton Reve Trop Plein, La Rose Complete, Dirait-On, Sure On this Shinging Night Op. 12, No. 3, Weepe, o mine eyes, Like as the culver on the bared bough, Go. Lovely rose, Vitas hinnuleo, Felices ter, O fons bandusia, Bitter for Sweet

Review: Evening Wind is a new collection of Choral Music by J.A.C. Redford. With texts by E.E.Cummings and William Wordsworth, this music weaves starswept skies and sunflecked seas around the theme of love. J.A.C Redford is an accomplished composer of concert, chamber and choral music, whose works have been performed by Cantus, The Debussy Trio, Los Angeles Chamber Singers, Los Angeles Master Choral, St. Martin's Chamber Choir, Utah Chamber Artists and Utah Symphony. In Films, Redford is best known for scores to The Trip to Bountiful, Oliver & Company, and Newsies, as well as the television series Coach and St. Elsewhere for which he received Emmy nominations.The Los Angeles Chamber Singers have been one of L.A.'s premier ensembles for 16 years. This brilliant choral organization guided by Peter Rutenberg, specializes in contemporary choral literature and works closely with Los Angeles composers to develop and encourage new repertoire.

Songlist: Evening Wind, Napili Bay, 2PM, Love Is The Every Only God, Night Pieces, Love Never Fails