Robert.shaw.chorale. .the.world's.favorite.songs

Every year brings a slew of new and reissued versions of this most beloved of Handel's works. This one first saw daylight in 1966, but lest you think it's outdated, this refurbished classic remains a source of listening pleasure. Obviously, it cannot reflect the historically informed performance practices of today. But it is one of the pioneering precursors of contemporary style, with sustained forward momentum, dancing rhythms, and an orchestra slimmed down from the prevailing norms of the 1960s. The singing is fine, with special kudos to the high-flying soprano, Judith Raskin, along with Florence Kopleff, a true alto, and Richard Lewis, a premier Handelian of the period.

Scott Robert Shaw’s debut “The English Tenor” takes us on a beautifully performed journey through a who’s who of great English composers and their vocal works. The names Ivor Gurney, Benjamin Britten, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Gerald Finzi and Roger Quilter are synonymous with English Song, and a Golden Age of British music. The wide variety of accompanying instruments and artists, the broad range of text settings and the mix of cornerstone works of the repertoire alongside lesser-known cycles make “The English Tenor” a thrilling debut album.

The Robert Shaw recordings on this Document Records CD features a selection of Mac McCormick recordings, live concert recordings, radio sessions and the recording by Ben Conroy, on a reel-to-reel recorder at a house party of his making, in 1971. The party went on for at least 4 hours, capturing a whole evening with Robert Shaw, his music and many personal recollections of his earlier performing years.
By the time he was a teenager, Robert Shaw would slip away from the farm to hear Jazz musicians play in the clubs and roadhouses in and around Houston. As soon as he was able Robert sought out a piano teacher and paid for the lessons out of his own earnings…

Itaipu (1989) is something of a cantata-cum-symphony-cum-oratorio with no clear text. Its topic is the world's largest hydroelectric dam, built on the Rarana River between Paraguay and Brazil, and the piece–in Glass's trademark punctuating minimalism–is filled with distinct South American instrumentation, particularly in the percussion. The music itself is noble, conjuring the human endeavor to build the five-mile-wide dam near the town of Itaipu. The Canyon (1988) is about no canyon in particular but tonally suggests the mystery of canyons in general. Both these compositions are among Glass's better works.

Robert Shaw's reading of the B Minor Mass is, in one sense at least, just what one would expect: sober and purposeful, beautifully shaped (Shaw is a master architect), it centers on the chorus. Like all of Shaw's choruses, the Atlanta group has that trademark richness of body and blend, and it sings with utter unanimity as though it were one great voice. Shaw opts for marginally broader tempos than those found in most period-instrument performances but is nowhere near as glacial as some interpreters.

Robert Shaw and Telarc have released another disk of not-too-often performed choral/orchestral works, but they are ones that are important: John Adams' Harmonium and Rachmaninoff's The Bells, two works featuring texts by important authors.

Stunning solo Texas blues and barrelhouse piano by the late pianist. The most amazing material, produced by Mack McCormick in Austin, dates from 1963 - the rhythmically and technically complex "The Cows" is a tour de force, and "The Ma Grinder" and "The Clinton" aren't far behind. Later numbers from 1973 and 1977 prove that Shaw's skills didn't degenerate with time.