Tuskegee Institute Choir

'Annunciations' celebrates Sir James MacMillan's ongoing contributions to sacred music, performed by St Salvator's Chapel Choir. Alongside five of his own pieces, the album includes works by two decisive influences on MacMillan, Benjamin Britten and Kenneth Leighton; two significant contemporaries, John Tavener and Judith Bingham; and six next generation composers mentored by Sir James on the TheoArtistry Composers' Scheme, a collaboration between ITIA (the Institute for Theology, Imagination and the Arts), the Music Centre, and St Salvator's Chapel Choir, in the University of St Andrews.

The Vienna Boys’ Choir, one of the world's oldest boys’ choirs, maintains its status as a living tradition after more than 500 years. Haydn and Schubert both started their musical careers there; Antonio Salieri was a member of the admissions jury. What is captivating about these recordings is both the clarity of textual and musical declamation and a very special, authentic charm deriving from the slight Viennese accent. Performances by the Vienna Boys’ Choir are not only a matter of perfect pronunciation and intonation, but also of a musical sensuality that is vital to interpretations of Haydn and Schubert, yet frequently overlooked.

With Van Gogh in Me, the Netherlands Chamber Choir presents an experience in which the paintings of Vincent Van Gogh and Gustav Klimt come to life to the music of the great Romantic and early 20th century composers such as Debussy, Saint-Saëns, Mahler… and, in a world premiere, a transcription for a cappella choir of Satie's first Gymnopédie. Originally written for solo piano, this work, which is known and played throughout the world, finds a new magical and celestial dimension in this new version for choir. Mentioning the name of Van Gogh immediately evokes in each of us a colour, a landscape, a sensation… Hence the idea of creating an immersive audiovisual experience: the choir approached an Italian collective, fuse*, to link images and sounds to the emotions of the musicians and the audience… fuse* developed an algorithm based on the works of Van Gogh and Klimt by recording their styles, colours, brushstrokes… then, during the concert, collects the sound of the choir but also biometric data that analyses the emotional state of the audience, the singers and the conductor, and creates visuals in real time, an astonishing show of colours and shapes that mixes sound, images and emotions… The visual of the album is inspired by these experiments.