This is a powerful and well-balanced trio of recent American choral works. ‘Recent’ doesn’t mean bleeding-edge: Joseph Turrin, Richard Einhorn, and Gilda Lyons are all firmly established composers, widely commissioned and with four academic appointments between them. In a ceaseless churn of commemorative commissions, Turrin’s And Crimson Roses Once Again Be Fair has staying power. Within a solidly tonal frame, Turrin’s orchestration thrashes (the very opening of the cantata; later, the bristly instrumental 10th movement) and aches (the a cappella ‘Poor Dogs,’ the ruminative ‘Perhaps’). Future performances will face a tall order disentangling ‘Perhaps’s big mezzo solo from Frederica von Stade’s world-weary delivery. Semiretired for well over a decade now, her voice is fragile and tremulous, particularly in its lower register, but her technique is still admirably sturdy. Once one moves past the initial jolt, it works, especially in Vera Brittain’s ruminative text. Crimson Roses also features Musica Viva soprano Erinn Sensenig in ‘The Last Meeting,’ her voice melding plummy richness and girlish purity. Einhorn’s The Luminous Ground is a meditative palette cleanser between Turrin and Lyons’s works, vocal harmonies lapping over sparse piano and strings. The five-movement Momotombo is a departure from both, the Musica Viva singers imitating rainsticks and rattles with their voices against richly consonant verses. One just wishes the Spanish diction were a bit clearer to give this delight the maiden voyage recording it deserves.