This is Sansara's second disc for Resonus and the performances are superb. There are thus a number of ways of listening to the album and whilst the listener may see it as simply a fine collection of motets, Tom Herring in his booklet note makes clear that for the performers there are stronger links, relating back to the destruction of Jerusalem and those empty cities, hence Galvani's rather eerie linking electronics. When the recording was finally made in October 2020 it was the first time the choir had sung together in several months, and the text from Lamentations, 'How lonely lies the city that was full of people' began to take on extra resonance. Galvani was named as one of Sansara's Associate Composers in March 2020 and a recording was intended to cement the relationship, but last year's lockdown put plans on hold. The opening of Super flumina Babylonis combines warm harmonies with a concentrated feel, and only with the 'Alleluia' does the music get really intense but then moves back to calm. O sacrum convivium builds from a solo voice, to a vocal line to a whole ensemble, moving from poised and thoughtful to dense, intense harmony and then back to intimate again. The final group consists of O sacrum convivium and Super flumina Babylonis. I was particularly struck by the way that Galvani, in Ave maris stella, moved flexibly between dissonance and consonance, whilst Alma Redemptoris Mater contrasts between single lines and ensemble, all held together by drones. These are something of a surprise, not the rhapsodic hymns to the Queen of Heaven that we might have expected but three rather concentrated, intense dramas. Then come three Marian motets, Ave sanctissima Maria, Ave maris stella and Alma Redemptoris Mater. In many ways Galvani's use of the traditional Ubi caritas plainchant in the motet is rather daring is this as so well known from Maurice Durufle's setting. Between the two parts of Lamentations comes Ubi caritas, and here the music moves between contrapuntal and homophonic, with a nice warmth to the rich harmonies. In both part of Lamentations the music moves between focused intensity and drama, with plenty of contrasts reflecting the words. Galvani manages to create music which is very 21st century yet timeless and in his polphonic textures is not frightened of sharp corners. Lamentations opens with a solo line, chant yet distinctively modern in its outline, and this develops into contemporary polyphony. The choral music on the disc is split into three groups, with Galvani's series of electronic scores, named for the letters of the Hebrew alphabet used in Lamentations as punctuation. Since then the ensemble has been keen to record the work. Galvani's Lamentations were commissioned by Jeremy Summerly for The Queen's College Chapel Choir in 2013, and Sansara first performed them in 2016. His choral music mixes influences of polphony with more recent harmonic developments. Marco Galvani (born 1994) studied with David Sawyer at the Royal Academy of Music and with Robert Saxon at Oxford University, and whilst at Oxford, Galvani was a choral scholar with The Queen’s College Choir. Invisible Cities features Galvani's Lamentations alongside a selection of motets plus a sequence of electronic music. The music of composer Marco Galvani has popped up at various times in the last few years, but a new disc from Sansara, artistic director Tom Herring, on Resonus Classics is the first disc to focus entirely on Galvani's music. Settings of Lamentations are the focus for a lovely disc which mixes sacred music by the young composer alongside his electronic music Reviewed by Robert Hugill on 16 June 2021 Star rating: 4.5 (★★★★½) Marco Galvani Invisible Cities Sansara, Tom Herring Resonus Classics
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