Rising w/the Crossing cover

Rising w/the Crossing

Released

During the bewildering and urgent first days of the COVID-19 shutdowns, new-music choir The Crossing began posting archival live recordings every morning on their website. Perhaps no other choir was so well-equipped to address the moment, with its vaunted technical proficiency, musical flexibility, and vast fund of recordings earnestly probing contemporary human questions.  The selection of these recordings offered here show a particular interest in works that dwell in the liminal space where despair becomes expectation and vice versa (see Paul Fowler’s “First Pink,” Joby Talbot’s “Lost Forever”). Wonderfully-paced and diverse, with a handful of stunners.

Sean Wood

Suggestions
Farrenc: Symphonies Nos 1 & 3 cover

Farrenc: Symphonies Nos 1 & 3

Insula Orchestra, Laurence Equilbey
Handel: Messiah cover

Handel: Messiah

Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner
 Cape Fear cover

Cape Fear

Elmer Bernstein
Written on Skin cover

Written on Skin

Allan Clayton, Barbara Hannigan, Bejun Mehta, Christopher Purves, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Martin Crimp, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Rebecca Jo Loeb
Aleotti: Le Monache di San Vito cover

Aleotti: Le Monache di San Vito

Candace Smith, Cappella Artemisia
To You Through cover

To You Through

India Gailey
Carthage cover

Carthage

The Crossing, Donald Nally
Julius Eastman Vol. 1: Femenine cover

Julius Eastman Vol. 1: Femenine

Christopher Rountree, Wild Up
Schnittke: Concerto For Choir cover

Schnittke: Concerto For Choir

USSR Ministry of Culture Chamber Choir, Valery Polyansky
Stravinsky: Symphony of Psalms cover

Stravinsky: Symphony of Psalms

Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Pierre Boulez