Snappy title isn't it, but basically it does exactly what it says on the tin. This list will sit under my profile for a week or two, but it's repeated here so that you can still see it when that version gets replaced by a new list.
So, in alphabetical order:
Atlanta Symphony Chorus
Bach Collegium Japan
CBSO Chorus
Corydon Singers
Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir
Gabrieli Consort
London Symphony Chorus
Namur Chamber Choir
New London Chamber Choir
Taverner Choir
I can personally recommend all of these either from recordings or concert performances, or both, and you'll find most of them featuring strongly in any 'recommended recordings' lists for the major choral works. I should point out that I've excluded any Oxford choirs from my list to avoid anyone local sulking or gloating about who was in or out.
Although you probably know all about most of these choirs I will highlight a couple of them:
New London Chamber Choir are amateurs, but you won't believe it when you hear them sing. They do a lot of contemporary stuff and I was lucky enough to hear them perform locally the other year - they totally blew me away! Find out more about them on their website ( NLCC ) and if you ever get the opportunity to go to one of their concerts don't pass it up.
The Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir probably aren't as well known as they should be either, partly because they tend to record Baltic music (a favourite category of mine, but a minority taste overall) and they don't tour the UK all that often. Having heard them sing at the Cheltenham Music Festival a few years ago, and owning at least half a dozen of their recordings I would definitely have put them in the '20 greatest choirs' category, and even Gramophone admitted that they were close runners up. Their website ( EPCC ) contains info about recordings and concerts. You'll be hearing a lot more about them in future posts too.
For now have a listen to the videos at the bottom of the page - be warned, however, that some of the works performed by the New London Chamber Choir can be a little bit wild.
Finally for those of you who haven't read the original article, the Gramophone 20 greatest choirs (and I wouldn't really argue with most of them) from 20 to 1 were:
I Fagiolini, The Arnold Schoenberg Choir, Stile Antico, The Balthasar Neumann Choir, Westminster Abbey Choir, Les Arts Florissants, The Choir of New College Oxford, The Tallis Scholars, The Choir of Kings College Cambridge, The Dunedin Consort, Swedish Radio Choir, Rias Chamber Choir, Accentus, Collegium Vocale Ghent, Wells Cathedral Choir, The Choir of Trinity College Cambridge, The Sixteen, The Cardinall's Musick, Polyphony and at the top The Monteverdi Choir.
Mind you, two Cambridge choirs above New College Oxford - what were they thinking about?
No comments:
Post a Comment