Light & Gold

Eric Whitacre’s formidable stature as a composer reached an even higher plateau with the success of his GRAMMY®-winning Light & Gold. His innovative approach to choral music is given full expression in this suite of original works, blending previously recorded compositions with new pieces. Recorded at London’s St. Silas Church in August 2010, the album features The Eric Whitacre Singers as well as the British choirs Laudibus and The King’s Singers. “Lux Aurmuque” opens the program on a buoyant, deeply spiritual note that pervades the album overall. A string quartet setting adds to the luster of “Five Hebrew Love Songs,” a series of brief, tender pieces featuring lyrics by Whitacre’s wife, Hila Plitmann. “The Seal Lullaby” (a wistfully beautiful setting for a Rudyard Kipling poem) and “Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine” (an expansive, melodically rich work that invokes Da Vinci’s visionary genius) provide the album with an uplifting thematic core. The dark lamentations of “The Stolen Child,” the ethereal reflections of “Water Night,” and the final benediction of “Sleep” carry the program to a transcendent finale.