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Fanfare Magazine: 39:2 (11-12/2015) 
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Resonus Classics
RES10152



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Saint Thomas Church on Fifth Avenue in New York is the home of one, certainly, of the most highly regarded all-male choirs in America. The Saint Thomas Choir of Men and Boys has attracted international attention and, incidentally, earned my well-deserved recommendation for its 2012 recording of an early version of Fauré’s Requiem (Fanfare 36:5). Unfortunately, I can’t give the present disc the same high mark. The choir’s recently deceased conductor, John Scott, was well versed not only in the Anglican boy-choir tradition—he was organist and director of music at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London before coming to New York—but also in the music of Bach. The performances of these iconic pieces are for the most part well judged, but not without some problems. Saint Thomas’s choir is relatively large by current standards—its group portrait shows 47 members—and, like most boy choirs, top-heavy. Many boys’ voices are needed to balance the heavier professional adult singers. (The boys are enrolled in the church’s choir school.) The choir is accompanied by a continuo group of cello, bass, and organ—three different organists, in fact, not including Scott. The problems are with the boys, who seem to be overwhelmed by Scott’s rapid tempos in, for example, Singet dem Herrn, causing them to lose focus while scrambling to keep up. This is not the case in such moderately paced motets as Komm, Jesu komm, but we do get the sense that the boys occasionally hinder the music’s forward momentum. Mind you, these are not bad performances. The men do their part, and the sound of the boy’s voices is very attractive. But there are too many superior versions out there for me to give this disc a whole-hearted recommendation.

The seventh motet is Ich Lasse dich nicht, once considered of doubtful origin, but now increasingly accepted as authentic.

 

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