Northwest Journey Review

     Lindsay Koob, American Record Guide
Here is a belated look at a varied and revealing collection of Morten Lauridsen's highly original music that evaded us when it first appeared in 2000. It offers valuable insights as to the true range and versatility of a composer whose glowing reputation remains somewhat stereotyped, in keeping with the serene and radiant nature of his best-known works.
   This collection offers much more than just gentle and luminous reflection. While Lauridsen's hallmark idiom remains essentially peaceful and mystical, searing flashes of musical near-violence and agonized tension pepper such works here as the Madrigali for chorus: pieces that I recently covered (M/J 2005) in breathtaking performances from Stephen Layton's Polyphony. Here they are brought to vibrant life by the most excellent Donald Brinegar Singers. The six Howard Moss settings for soprano and piano of A Winter Come convey a restless sense of chilly desolation. These pieces are artfully dispatched by Jane Thorngren, with Ralph Grierson at the keyboard.
   It's not easy to pigeonhole Lauridsen tonally. Diatonic structure, spiced with subtle dissonance, is employed in most of his choral compositions — along with ingenious modern echoes of ancient modes and polyphony. But other works, like his striking and sometimes fearful Variations for piano — brilliantly delivered by Grierson — are purely atonal. Similar unharmonious angst intermittently pervades the Cuatro Canciones for soprano and instrumental trio, amplifying the unsettling verses of Garcia Lorca. You'd be hard-pressed to whistle most of these themes on your way out of the concert hall — yet they do not lack for careful design and beauty, especially in the final setting. Anne Marie Ketchum and the Viklarbo Chamber Ensemble perform them with skill and conviction.
   Lauridsen's stylistic diversity is further revealed in "Where Have the Actors Gone," a soft and wistful solo lament that would sound equally at home from a Broadway stage or in a smoky cabaret. Sunny Wilkinson's subdued and emotionally naked vocals are nicely supported by Shelly Berg at the piano.
   Two of his best-known choral works are recast here for smaller vocal forces. Ms. Thorngren presents a limpid solo version of "O Magnum Mysterium," and is joined by baritone James Drollinger for a lovely duet arrangement of "Dirait-On," from the Rilke settings of Les Chansons des Roses. The composer himself graces these performances with his expressive work at the piano. Brinegar and company tastefully restore pure choral tranquility with the lovely chant-based motet "Ubi Caritas et Amor."
   Of incidental interest to some will be the significance of the album's title, "Northwest Journey." Lauridsen is a native of the Pacific Northwest, and divides his time these days between his teaching position in Los Angeles and his summer retreat in the remote San Juan Islands of Puget Sound. Sensitive listeners who, like me, have lived and worked in the region will hear its subtle natural aura and manifold beauties reflected in much of his music.
   This CD contains quite a few premiere recordings, along with a tantalizing taste of Lauridsen's smaller-scale instrumental writing. Owing to multiple recording venues, sonic characteristics vary somewhat from piece to piece — but recording quality is consistently excellent. We get succinctly sensitive notes, but no texts — save for translations of the non-English pieces. It is essential listening for any who wish to better comprehend and appreciate the full scope of this cherished American master's abilities and achievements.

Fingers Afire, Voices on High

Northwest keyboardists, choral compositions shine on new CDs
The Seattle Times, Melinda Bargreen     November 2nd, 2000
   Some of the recent output of Portland-born composer Morten Lauridsen, who spends each summer composing in his aerie on one of the more remote San Juan Islands, is collected on this remarkably fine new disc. And before you run in the other direction at the thought of (gasp!) new music, recall that Lauridsen is today's hottest composer of choral music because it is "compulsively listenable," as the Los Angeles Times puts it.
   When you look around the region's many choruses, you'll find some Lauridsen on nearly everybody's program this season; his "Lux Aeterna" recording (with the Los Angeles Master Chorale) was nominated for a Grammy, and the same work earned a heartfelt standing ovation this past spring when the Seattle Choral Company performed it.
   "Northwest Journey" shows the breadth of which Lauridsen is capable: A Broadway-style ballad, "Where Have the Actors Gone"; an art-song cycle, "A Winter Come" (with the exquisite soprano Jane Thorngren, long a Seattle Symphony favorite); virtuoso a cappella choral music ("Madrigali: Fire Songs," with the very good Donal Brinegar Singers); chamber/vocal music ("Cuatro Canciones," written to Lorca poems, performed by soprano Anne Marie Ketchum and the Viklarbo Chamber Ensemble); and a piano piece in a somewhat thornier idiom.
   Lauridsen also has arranged two of his most beloved short choral pieces, "Dirait-on" (from "Les Chansons des Roses") and the otherworldly "O Magnum Mysterium," for voice and piano -- a move that will surely advance these favorites even farther into the general repertoire. Thorngren's voice soars in that latter work, with the composer himself at the keyboard.
   Lauridsen's new CD is available on the RCM label. (If you have trouble finding it, check out www.RCMUSA.com.)