This CD arrived through the post some weeks ago. I hadn't heard of Libera before, but I have sung in a number of different choirs myself and so was willing to give it a try.
This is a super disk! I don't care for all the works performed equally but was spellbound by the setting of Bach's Air on a G String, The Lamb (which is a setting of a poem by William Blake) and In Paradisum. The boys' singing is absolutely beautiful, with excellent technique. The treble soloists have wonderful soaring voices, flying right up to 3 D's above middle C without any trouble at all. There is enough variety in the different settings to display the range of their singing really well and even nicer, although they've performed some of the works on earlier CD's all of the recordings on this disk are new ones.
Libera is a London based choir of nine schoolboys. Their director and producer is Robert Prizeman, who is one of the accompanists along with the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, and who wrote and/or arranged much of the music on the disk.
The CD itself is accompanied by an informative leaflet with complete libretti of all of the songs of the book. The works performed are:-
- Orinoco Flow
- Ave Maria
- Secret
- Air
- Gloria
- Sancte
- Rest in Peace
- Love and Mercy
- May the road rise up
- Never be alone
- Jerusalem
- Tallis's Canon
- The Lamb
- In Paradisum
I haven't heard the other three disks by this group of choirboys yet, but I enjoyed this one and will be buying the others. You can listen to excerpts of some of the pieces the boys perform on the disk at Libera New Dawn and the disk is available for purchase at www.amazon.com
