GETTY: Choral Works

“These performances present a strong case for the music, which should be popular with choruses searching for Americana to program.” Robert Benson

Getty is an extremely talented, communicative composer - one who writes in an extremely conservative, audience-friendly style, but who manages to find his own authentic voice. The more of his music I have heard, the more I’ve come to appreciate him as a powerful musical personality while his music is tonal and tuneful, it is not without touches of 20th-century harmonic grammar for any listener who enjoys robust choral writing, good tunes, lively rhythms, and ethereal beauty, this disc can be enthusiastically recommended.

The texts of Young America were mostly written by Getty This music and the texts recall just what the title implies, a young America, and the work is evocative and powerful despite or perhaps because of its simplicity. Getty also has a nice feel for orchestral colors. The Three Welsh Songs are settings by Getty, and "All Through the Night" is a remarkably beautiful closing to the group. Victorian Scenes is a setting of poems by Tennyson and Housman, and evokes scenes of nature very effectively. Annabel Lee is a setting of Poe’s heart-on-sleeve poem paying tribute to his wife who died of tuberculosis at the age of 24. What saves Poe’s words from excessive sentimentality is their deeply felt sincerity and the elegance of his outpouring of love and sorrow, and Getty captures this in his music

Special praise goes to baritone Chernov, soprano Delan, and bass Hunka for their clear, committed singing in ["Jerusalem" from the opera Plump Jack]. All of the performances here are excellent - both choirs sing with beautiful blend and balance, clear diction, good intonation, and a real feeling for the music. I heard the SACD in regular two-channel stereo and thought the sound superbly balanced, with plenty of air around the chorus but no muddiness. PentaTone supplies full texts. This is an extraordinarily engaging disc, one to which I shall return many times."

Henry Fogel

“The performances are outstanding…sound quality, as usual from PentaTone, is superb. Highly recommended, for lovers of choral music, or anyone that yearns for a bygone age.” Tom Gibbs

“There’s clearly a strong personal voice here [and] the results are consistently winsome, sometimes even hauntingly beautiful. Those attracted to the spirit behind this music will find that the performances are fluent and that the sound - as usual with PentaTone - is exceptionally natural.”