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Listening to the Moramus Chorale open What Good News the Angels Bring! An Old Salem Christmas put me in mind of my 7th grade choir. I don't know why, because they're no school kids. The Winston-Salem Children's choir, who closes this fine set, would be much closer to the age group I inhabited way back when. I was thinking back about my music theory with Mr. Boyer, and trying to remember what he said about the tonality of the human voice. (But I couldn't.) The Moramus Chorale sings with a relaxed tonality and a breathy signature that soothed me. The Winston-Salem Children's Choir, on the other hand, was seeking a more disciplined sound. I enjoyed both groups, though one selection, Kolyadki gave the edge to the Children's Chorus, at least in the most memorable song category. Kolyadki is a word for a Russian yule tradition of "wishing of wealth and happiness for everybody". The high-anxiety melody was revealed to perfection by the young voices of the Children's Chorus.

And yet, these choral performances couldn't outscore Scott Carpenter's performance on "the largest existing pipe organ built by America's first native-trained organbuilder". Playing an organ of such equivocal prestige, Carpenter was, at times, mesmerizing. In particular, Noël: Tous les bourgeois de Chátre was a monstrously delicate rendering of high notes on a pipe organ, not marred in the least by the percussive thumping of stops. His set demonstrated impressive range. Whether it was the bellowing bellows of Vom Himmel hoch, da komm ich her or the crisp precision of Sonata da Chiesa, whose second part featured an agile flute counterpoint in Laura Dangerfield, Carpenter's organ grabbing was by far the highlight of this performance work.

If you enjoy listening to choirs or pipe organs, or both, What Good News the Angels Bring! An Old Salem Christmas is worth a couple of spins.

--Richard Banks
(Reviewed in 2006)

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From the Raven CD Web site:

Featuring the largest existing pipe organ built by America's first native-trained organbuilder, David Tannenberg (1728-1804), now restored in its own concert hall at Old Salem in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, after silence since 1910, organist Scott Carpenter plays solo organ works, a work for flute and organ by Dan Locklair, and two choirs and instrumentalists sing seasonal works, some of which were composed by Moravians. The organ was built by Tannenberg 1799-1800 for Home Moravian Church in Salem. Singing are the Winston-Salem Children's Chorus, Barbara C. Beattie, director; and the Moramus Chorale, James Bates, director.

Moramus Chorale, Winston-Salem Children's Chorus, and Scott Carpenter, organist

What Good News the Angels Bring!
An Old Salem Christmas

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