Hans Gál: Music for Voices, Volume Three
Whether in his original home of Vienna, as a conservatoire director in Mainz, or as an émigré in Edinburgh, where he became one of the mainstays of musical life, Hans Gál (1890–1987) championed choral singing as a way of directly involving people in making music: he founded and conducted a number of choirs and provided an extensive output of choral compositions. This third album of his choral music offers a vivid cross-section of music for chamber choir, featuring mixed voices, women’s voices and male-voice choir, a cappella, with solo soprano, with piano and with chamber accompaniment.
Carolyn Sampson, soprano
Pixels Ensemble
Borealis Choir
Bridget Budge, director
Stephen Muir, director
Listen To This Recording:
- Nachtmusik, Op. 44 (9:47)
Four Part-Songs, Op. 61 (1954) (11:17)
- No. 1, Love Will Find out the Way (1:48)
- No. 2, An Epitaph (3:03)
- No. 3, To Sleep (3:14)
- No. 4, Phillida and Corydon (3:12)
Of a Summer Day, Op. 77 (1951) (29:36)
- Prelude (4:46)
- I. To-day (2:01)
- II. Morning (2:08)
- III. Make much of Time (2:16)
- IV. Song of June – (3:11)
- V. Elegy (2:26)
- VI. Scherzo (5:14)
- VII. Hurricane – (2:16)
- VIII. Sunset – (2:48)
- IX. Silver (4:30).
Two Songs, Op. 8 (1914) (4:43)
- No. 1, Idylle (1:54)
- No. 2, Sterne im Wasser (2:49)
Two Songs, Op. 63 (1954) (5:15)
- No. 1, Bey dem Weine (2:44)
- No. 2, Runda (2:36)
First Recordings
BBC Music Magazine :
‘This third instalment, spanning some 40 years, from 1914 to 1954, offers a satisfying portrait of Gál’s refinement and lyrical imagination.
From the first bars of Nachtmusik, one is reminded of Gál’s innate gift for atmosphere and line. The Borealis Choir sings with warmth and sensitivity, their phrasing fluid and conversational. Carolyn Sampson, radiant as ever, weaves her gorgeous soprano through the male chorus with tender, luminous grace. She proves an ideal interpreter of Gál’s Brahmsian lyricism &mdas; Romantic in impulse yet never overindulgent.
The Four Part-Songs on English texts reveals the composer’s gift for contour and colour: pastoral ease gives away to quite elegy, the harmonic writing shaded with subtle, wistful inflections.
At the hearth of the programme Of a Summer Day, a colourful suite for women’s choir and soprano framed by instrumental preludes. its craftmanship is both descriptive and dramatic, with Mendelssohn clearly a guiding spirit. […] Throughout, conductors Bridget Budge and Stephan Muir allow a quite eloquence to emerge naturally.
Gál’s profound humanism shines through in music that is expressive yet restrained. Toccata’s sound engineering captures the clarity and balance of the forces beautifully, giving the listener a sense of intimate communication. For those attuned to the understated appeal of early-to mid–20th-century choral music, this disc is a revelation, confirming the not inconsiderable significance of Gál’s contribution to Europe’s choral traditions.’
—Ashutosh Khandekar, BBC Music Magazine