Gjeilo likes to improvise on piano to some of his a cappella choral pieces, which works very well (the entrancing, chantlike, eventually lushly harmonized opening Ubi caritas), and in other instances he adds strings, once even a guitar, in an intriguing rhythmic/melodic partnership with piano (and string quartet) in a setting of a couple of stanzas from Yeats’ The Lake Isle of Innisfree.Sanctus Ola Gjeilo He’s not quite one of the former either, for the works on this program are not innovative as much as they are comfortable in familiar territory of composers such as Rutter, Pärt, and Whitacre. Happily, at least on evidence here, Norwegian-born/New York-based composer Ola Gjeilo (nearly every review or article about him comes with the tag after his name: “pronounced Yay-lo”) is not one of the latter.
I’m not talking about composers who thoughtfully and creatively influence the development and possibilities of choral music, encouraging us to listen and think about choral singing in new ways I’m referring to those who appear to equate advancement of art with making its practice and expression (performance) just more difficult, and thus less and less accessible to both performers and consumers. In these cases, meaningful musical or emotional connection is elusive, as is any relationship of music to the text. Instead, I’m confronted with sounds and effects, complexly constructed and technically difficult, seemingly for the sake of complexity and difficulty. But in recent years, so often on recordings of new choral works the pleasure is missing. There are many reasons to listen to a recording of choral music: pleasure ranks high on my list.
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