The Saint Louis Chamber Chorus, Spencer Smith (org), Diana Umali (pno) / Philip Barnes (dir)

REGENT REGCD578 [76:31]

★★★★★

Although commissioned for this first-rate professional choir over a period of 15 years, almost all the 11 works presented here reflect upon despair, with or without a hopeful resolution. They include two powerful settings of Psalm 130 Out of the Depth / De profundis, by Carl Rütti, who uses the German text, and Kerensa Briggs – the whole of her very impressive trilogy Height in Depth is included. That commission was supported by the friends and the estate of Sarah Bryan Miller, classical music critic for the Saint Louis Post.

The album also includes an atmospheric setting of Psalm 121, Lift thine eyes, written in Bryan Miller’s honour by Judith Bingham. It opens with a marvellous Missa Brevis by Dobrinka Tabakova, whose Kyrie really does plumb the depths, responding to the range of one of the choir’s regular basses by employing a particularly low register, while its Sanctus makes correspondingly stratospheric demands upon the sopranos. The choir’s stamina is tested and its excellent tuning showcased by a substantial setting of Horace’s ode Aequam memento by David Matthews (whose degree is in Classics). A lighter mood is evoked by Sasha Johnson Manning’s beautiful Christmas bells, its dense textures representing the pealing bells from beginning to end; and a more optimistic note is struck by the concluding track, Melissa Dunphy’s We are the music makers, written during the pandemic with the intention that it could be performed effectively by just four singers (SATB) and a piano. A useful inclusion in the liner booklet is a list of the composers’ publishers, should listeners fancy performing any of these excellent pieces with their own choirs.

This article originally appeared in the Autumn 2024 issue of Choir & Organ. Never miss an issue – subscribe today