Ensemble LaCappella: shimmering

Mary – the musical associations with this name are immediate and manifold: from the Christmas-song ‘Mary’s Boy Child’ to ‘Maria’ from Leonard Bernstein’s musical ‘West Side Story’. The present disc approaches the various biblical and secular facets of Mary under the heading ‘shimmering’. LaCappella, an ensemble of six stunningly homogenous female voices, sets out on a journey through music history: since the Bible reveals only little about the Virgin Mary, artists and musicians have seen it as their duty to flesh out the sketchy image of the saintly woman in radiant colours. For ‘shimmering’, LaCappella has selected works which move beyond the trodden paths. Because there is almost no repertoire for female choir from periods reaching further back than the Romantic era, contemporary composers play a particularly prominent role in this endeavour: ‘Shimmering – Ave generosa’ by the Norwegian composer Ola Gjeilo, which lends its title to this CD; Wolfgang Drescher’s ‘Lux aeterna’, which was composed specifically for LaCappella; and Erik Esenvalds’ ‘O salutaris hostia’. Other pieces, among them works by Petr Eben and Vytautas Miškinis, generate a tight-knit network with songs from the Renaissance and the Romantic era. A special focus is given to works by Robert Schumann, which shed light onto Mary’s worldly characteristics in particular. ‘Shimmering’ – rarely has a CD taken up its title more literally and with more brilliant radiancy!

Ensemble LaCappella

http://www.singen-und-stimme.de - CD Tipp (03.10.2014, Johannes Pfeffer)

„Shimmering, zu deutsch „scheinen, leuchten“ ist ein ausgesprochen gut getroffener Titel für das neue Album des Frauenensembles LaCappella. Der Titel beschreibt nicht nur die Werke, sondern auch den strahlenden Klang der CD. [...] La Cappella musizieren durchweg auf hohem Niveau. Und dies durch alle Epochen von Francesco Guerros Renaissancemusik bis hin zu den zahlreichen zeitgenössischen Werken. [...] Mit ihrem Jubiläumsalbum „shimmering“ haben LaCappella sich und den A-Cappella-Fans ein schönes Geschenk gemacht. Und Rondeau Production aus Leipzig beweisen wiedermal, dass sie im Bereich junge Vokalmusik derzeit eines der spannendsten Labels am Markt sind."

Opera News (30. Oktober 2015, Joanne Sydney Lessner)

“Their approach here is gentler, and the midrange vocal parts elicit a hushed halo to their sound that does, indeed, shimmer as promised.”