Beal: The Salvage Men + Barber / Nelson / Whitacre (SACD)

Praised for their versatility and keen interest in new music, the Eric Ericson Chamber Choir and its principal conductor Fredrik Malmberg present a program devoted to a cappella works in a modern yet accessible style by American or American-born composers. The album opens with a triptych based on adaptations of ancient Gaelic poems, Reincarnations by Samuel Barber, known for his opulent, post-romantic language as expressed in his famous Adagio for Strings. Jeff Beal, one of Hollywood's most prolific and respected composers, wrote The Salvage Men, based on texts by Oscar Wilde and contemporary Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Kay Ryan. According to Beal, this cycle offers "a completely fresh, contemporary take on the themes of transformation and our chosen response to pain". Daniel Nelson's The New Colossus, based on a text by 19th century writer Emma Lazarus inspired by the Statue of Liberty, aims to musically convey the majesty and beauty inherent in the idea of inclusion. Finally, two works by Eric Whitacre, a composer whose works have become popular with vocal ensembles across America: A Boy and a Girl, a sensitive piece based on a poem by Octavio Paz, and Three Songs of Faith based on texts by E. E. Cummings, a cycle depicting Whitacre's personal faith and his reflections on the spiritual and the unknown.