In 2011 Chor Leoni opened the digital vault to mark its pending 20th Anniversary Season with a reissue of L’Hymne au Printemps. This biodegradable digital download card features tracks or interpretations that don’t appear on any other Chor Leoni recordings.
PLEASE NOTE: THIS IS NOT A CD
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For sheer entertainment value, a Chor Leoni concert is a must-see. But for those who haven’t been lucky enough to score a ticket, a CD of L’Hymne au Printemps, last Spring’s sold-out concert by the Vancouver’s men’s choir, is out in the shops.
The choirs directrice Diane Loomer is too canny to release a CD of the choir at less than its best, so L’Hymne shows just how good the choir of lions has become in the seven years of its existence.
Most ofL’Hymne is in French but several of the sacred pieces are in Latin and there’s even a smattering in English. The mostly-classical repertoire ranges widely, from the 12th century (Perotin’s “Beata Viscera”) right up to the 20th, with pieces by Francis Poulenc and Darius Milhaud.
It’s leavened with a couple of folk and novelty numbers and there’s even a luscious arrangement of Michael Head’s “How Sweet the Moonlight Sleeps Upon This Bank” by the choir’s piano-accompanist, Stephen Smith.
The live performance energy jumps right out at you through the clarity and immediacy of the recording. Like this concert, this CD is likely to sell out, so snap it up while supplies last.
Robert Jordan
The Vancouver Courier Sunday July 18, 1999