Conspirare: House of Belonging
Delos

Many of the performances on this latest collection by Conspirare are so powerful, one can't help but be awed by their beauty. That starts with its haunting opening work, Reaching, featuring music by the choral group's founder and leader Craig Hella Johnson and words by Welsh-Scottish poet/librettist Euan Tait, which, especially when elevated by the majestic singing of tenor Haitham Haidar and baritone Simon Barrad (and with the composer on piano), is so stirring it's almost overwhelming. The spell is cast the moment hushed voices intone “Oh, we are far away from home / We are turning away,” but that's hardly the only time music so moving and emotionally rich appears on a release that showcases the splendour of Conspirare's vocal artistry time and time again. Lustrous and ethereal, the singing by the Austin, Texas-based ensemble captivates, whether voiced by the full ensemble or by its exceptional soloists.

House of Belonging presents twelve works by American composers, many of them commissioned and one, Alex Berko's phenomenal Sacred Place, in six parts. In addition to Johnson and Berko, the album features pieces by Kevin Puts, Derrick Skye, Moira Smiley, Shara Nova, Michael Schachter, Margaret Bonds, and Ross Lee Finney (Puts, Berko, and Nova are represented by two works apiece). Augmenting the choir on selected pieces are Miró Quartet, pianist Carla McElhaney, violinist Sandy Yamamoto, and cellist Daniel Kopp, their contributions adding a vivid extra dimension to the vocal performances. In the soloist category, Haidar and Barrad excel but so too do tenor Michael Jones and sopranos Kathlene Ritch, Meg Dudley, and Savannah Porter.

Among other things, the album content emphasizes the need for human connection and to feel at home in the world, themes that have inspired the composers to create musical material that dovetails seamlessly with texts by Tait, John Muir, William Stafford, Kiara Skye, Wendell Berry, Rabindranath Tagore, David Whyte, Langston Hughes, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Hildegard of Bingen. Such content is always relevant but perhaps never more so than today when refugees are regularly trying to escape war-torn countries and civilians are at this moment being displaced by fighting in the Middle East. And of course the need for human connection was never felt more desperately than during recent pandemic-related lockdowns.

Unaccompanied, Haidar initiates Berko's Sacred Places with an opening prayer in an epic, twenty-one-minute work that replicates the outline of a Jewish service but substitutes its customary prayers with texts by various figures writing about the environment as a site of safety, comfort, and beauty. With piano, violin, and cello accompanying the ensemble, the piece progresses through settings sparsely arranged and others elaborately presented. Equaling Belonging for emotional impact and resonance, the work's disarmingly beautiful third movement “Shema” is distinguished by the magnificent singing of Haidar and Ritch, sparkling accompaniment by McElhaney, and Conspirare's soaring voices. Powerful too are “Mi Shebeirach,” “Kaddish,” and the closing prayer, the hushed latter closing the circle with Haidar complemented by the choir and piano.

Written in response to the refugee crisis in Europe, Puts' Home couples wordless choral singing with the emotive strings of Miró Quartet to powerful effect. The absence of text does nothing to make this sublime work any less enriching. Also featuring the string quartet, Skye's Black Ocean: Anthems of a Crowd 7 is a multi-faceted adventure that incorporates vocal effects and body percussion into its design. Elements of Hindustani classical music and West African fiddle music also emerge during this rhythmically infectious setting, which, aptly, uses fragments from a stream-of-consciousness poem by Skye called Cosmic Byproduct as the source text.

October 2023