In 2017 the St Charles Singers, 31-strong and drawing on Chicago area professionals, toured England with a programme of music by American composers, which they recorded along the way in Ripon Cathedral, St James’s Church in Piccadilly, Lincoln Cathedral Chapter House and Durham Cathedral. The resulting collection is a showcase that reflects the still conflicted American phases of ‘Water. Love. Oppression. Hope.’

James Erb’s sweet and gentle arrangement of ‘Shenandoah’ and Irving Fine’s lovely arrangement with its wonderful string solos of Copland’s setting of ‘Long time ago’ set the stage for Dominick Argento’s Walden Pond in only its second recording, a natural choice since 2017 also marked Henry David Thoreau’s 200th anniversary. Backed by three cellos and a harp, the choir is given all sorts of wonderful sounds to make and songs to sing. Set to excerpts from Thoreau’s Transcendentalist texts, Walden Pond is thoughtful yet impulsive, with grand moments of beauty. Argento uses string glissandos in several of the five movements; those in ‘Observing’ recall Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

After such idyllic Love moments as Morten Lauridsen’s Dirait-on and a nostalgic alternative version of ‘Shall we gather at the river’ (arranged by William Hawley as ‘Beautiful River’), the impact of America’s unresolved darker side is deeply felt. Stacy Gibbs’s arrangement of ‘Great God almighty’ followed by Jake Runestad’s stark, humourless setting of ‘Why the caged bird sings’ by Paul Dunbar, whose parents were slaves in Kentucky, have a cumulative impact that is only slightly consoled by Chelsea Rhoades’s moving solo in ‘I hunger and thirst’. The full choir finish with their best singing in the upbeat traditional Appalachian song ‘Bright Morning Stars’.