Robert de Cormier, his 12-member vocal ensemble Counterpoint, and 28 additional singers and instrumentalists have joined forces to present this lavish 2005 Albany release of twentieth century Latin American choral music; yet for all the care and effort expended, the folk-flavored results are merely entertaining, not revelatory or moving. The sacred works by Argentinean composer Ariel Ramírez are the most prominent offerings, central to the album's cross-cultural theme and representative of the newfound freedom of religious ...
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Robert de Cormier, his 12-member vocal ensemble Counterpoint, and 28 additional singers and instrumentalists have joined forces to present this lavish 2005 Albany release of twentieth century Latin American choral music; yet for all the care and effort expended, the folk-flavored results are merely entertaining, not revelatory or moving. The sacred works by Argentinean composer Ariel Ramírez are the most prominent offerings, central to the album's cross-cultural theme and representative of the newfound freedom of religious expression made possible by Vatican II. Misa Criolla and the Christmas cantata Navedad Nuestra (both 1964) are key examples of the hybrid church music Ramírez composed to promote the use of the Spanish vernacular in the Roman Catholic liturgy; yet these settings smack too much of the decade's kitschy pop styles -- most flagrantly in the use of a harpsichord and peppy vocalizations, obviously borrowed from the Swingle Singers -- and sound too commercially calculated to make the...
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