"Gottwald's awesome technical demands put much of this music
way beyond the scope of most choirs, and it is greatly to Ralph
Allwood's credit that the Rodolfus Choir, most of whom are students
and all of whom are under 25, have not only tackled this music at all
but have done so with considerable distinction ... there is a
collective enthusiasm for the music and for art of choral singing ...
They clearly relish the vocal harmonics in Ravel's Soupir, they
love the bell effects in Debussy's Les Angélus, they
positively luxuriate in the warm glow of Gottwald's take on "O
mio babbino caro" and they float around with enormous enthusiasm
in the misty textures of Caplet's Présentation"
Gramophone, Awards 2007
"Do his arrangements stand up well against the original? The answer is mainly yes. This is thanks to the persuasive performance of the young singers of the Rodolfus Choir, who do not blench at what is sometimes a formidable task"
Choir and Organ
Gramophone Awards 2007 (October 2007)
The extraordinarily lavish choral transcriptions of Clytus Gottwald
have been superbly captured on disc by Accentus in their
"Transcriptions" series on Naïve (A/03 - nla; 3/07). Gottwald's
awesome technical demands put much of this music way beyond the scope of
most choirs, and it is greatly to Ralph Allwood's credit that the Rodolfus
Choir, most of whom are students and all of whom are under 25, have not
only tackled this music at all but have done so with considerable
distinction. Most notable here are the choir's impeccable tuning and
Allwood's sensitive balancing of a choral texture that, in places, moves
into no fewer that 16 parts.
But considerations of age and experience shouldn't come into the
equation if you're investing in a full-price CD to hear fully accomplished
performances of this music. From both technical and interpretative
standpoints, the Rodolfus Choir is eclipsed by Accentus
That, though, is only part of the story. With a young choir whose
members have spent weeks intensively polishing their craft, there is a
collective enthusiasm for the music and for art of choral singing which
transcends matters of technique and interpretive depth. What this choir
lack in polish (the top sopranos strain horribly in the first Wolf Lied,
while there are very rough edges at the climax of Wagner's second Tristan
and Isolde study), they more than compensate with their desire to convey
real passion for this music. They clearly relish the vocal harmonics in
Ravel's Soupir, they love the bell effects in Debussy's Les Angélus, they
positively luxuriate in the warm glow of Gottwald's take on "O mio
babbino caro" and they float around with enormous enthusiasm in the
misty textures of Caplet's Présentation. It may not be perfection but
this is an undeniably enchanting disc.
Marc Rochester
Choir and Organ, January/ February 2008
****
The arrangements of Clytus Gottwald take a lot of beating. They derive from late 19th- and early 20th-century works, and his approach is basically symphonic. Do his arrangements stand up well against the original? The answer is mainly yes. This is thanks to the persuasive performance of the young singers of the Rodolfus Choir, who do not blench at what is sometimes a formidable task. Composers given the Gottwald treatment include Mahler, Debussy, Wagner, Wolf, Berg and Webern. It's a pity there is some sound distortion in the fortissimo passages.
