SITE RATING: 1/10
SITE
REVIEW:
Another privately-pressed
album, this production of the
Brentwood Presbyterian Church, with conductor
Don Weiss is more
ambitious than a casual glance might reveal;
it features a full chamber
orchestra, not just the organist listed on the
credits. There are
intonation and pitch issues throughout the
orchestra, which undercuts
the listening experience, and hampers most of
the album, but that's
only the first of multiple faults. Tenor
James Umberger has a
pleasant enough tone, his amateurism showing
off only on the difficult
melismas, but otherwise, he gives a solid
performance. Soprano
Joan Anderson is fine - with a trilling tone
that I found very sweet on
her short "And Suddenly There Was With The
Angel". Alto Enid
Jacobsen is rich and dark on "He Shall Feed
His Flock", although the
tempos again seem drenched in syrup, and bass
Robert Bernard is
blustery and strangely distant in the sound
mix. The combined
Chapel and Chancel Choirs are earnest, but
hampered by disunity and
sluggish, leaden tempos that exaggerate the
heavy downbeats.
Indeed, Weiss's tempos are the biggest
fault here, with
everything taken at tempos that only emphasize
why the baroque
revivalist movement of the late eighties took
hold so strongly - much
of what drags down this performance could have
been cleaned up by a
change of tempo - by making things "dance" and
bounce lightly; whereas
this entire album simply drags, the tempos
adding to the pitch and
intonation woes.
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