GLORIA
Shaughnessy Heights Sanctuary Choir

Roy Campbell, Organ
Recorded live: May 2014
Holy Rosary Cathedral, Vancouver, BC

 

 

 

 

Prelude  |  Ola Gjeilo

Ave Verum  |  Philip Stopford

Kyrie (from Missa Rigensis)  |  Uģis Prauliņš

Seek Him that Maketh the Seven Stars  |  Jonathan Dove

Te Deum  |  Ramona Luengen

A Covenant Prayer  |  Dan Forrest

Gloria (from Missa Brevis)  |  Jonathan Dove

Sanctus (from Missa Brevis)  |  Jonathan Dove

Lighten Our Darkness  |  Alexandre L’Estrange

O Lord, Support Us  |  David Briggs

 

Road_Less_Travelled_Cover_fullTHE ROAD LESS TRAVELLED
Phoenix Chamber Choir

Recorded live in Germany and Prague, 2007

 

 

 

 

 

 

Water Night  |  Eric Whitacre

Immortal Bach  |  Knut Nystedt

Esto les digo  |  Kinley Lange

Karitas habundant  |  Hildegard von Bingen

Wie liegt die Stadt so wüst  |  Rudolph Mauersberger

Lux aurumque  |  Eric Whitacre

From Missa Tiburtina  |  Giles Swayne

  • Kyrie
  • Benedictus
  • Dona nobis pacem

Kondakion  |  Galina Grigorjewa

Let Our Mouths be Filled  |  Dmitry V. Smirnov

Evening Prayer  |  E. Humperdinck, arr. Phil Matson

Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen  |  G. Mahler, arr. Clytus Gottwald

Nocture Tagore  |  Thierry Machuel

From Exercitia Mythologica  |  Jan Novak

  • Minerva
  • Tityrus
  • Terpsichore

El Paisanito  |  Arr. Ward Swingle

I Can Tell the World  |  Arr. Moses Hogan

Live_From_Europe_Cover_fullLIVE FROM EUROPE
Phoenix Chamber Choir

Recorded live in Germany and Luxembourg, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CD ONE

Ave verum corpus  |  Colin Mawby

O Crux  |  Knut Nystedt

Jesu, dulcis memoria  |  Tomás Luis de Victoria

O rubor sanguinis  |  Hildegard von Bingen

Bogoroditsye Dyevo  |  Sergei Rachmaninoff

O süsses Licht  |  Ramona Luengen  |  maple-leaf

Die Stimme des Kindes  |  Jaakko Mäntyjärvi

Deep River  |  Arr. Norman Luboff

I Got Shoes  |  Arr. Robert Shaw/Alice Parker

Hortabágy  |  Arr. György Ligeti

Schein uns, du liebe Sonne  |  Arr. Arnold Schoenberg

Ei, du Lütte  |  Arnold Schoenberg

Dat du min Leevsten büst  |  Arr. Hellmut Wormsbacher

Eb fél, kutja fél  |  Arr. György Ligeti

CD TWO

O quam amabilis  |  Pierre Villette

Panis angelicus  |  Pierre Villette

Tenebrae factae sunt  |  Carolo Gesualdo

De profundis  |  Jozsef Karai

Agneau de Dieu  |  Rupert Lang  |  maple-leaf

Crucifixus  |  Antonio Lotti

Ergebung  |  Hugo Wolf

Irischer Segenswunsch  |  Markus Pythik

Shenandoah  |  Arr. James Erb

Joshua Fought the Battle  |  Arr. Jonathan Rathbone

It Don’t Mean a Thing  |  Arr. Anders Edenroth

Goodnight, It’s Time to Go  |  Arr. Kirby Shaw

LIVE FROM EUROPE CD REVIEWS

This two-CD set is a genuine ear-opener, fuelled by passion and ability that are impossible to fake.
— The Georgia Straight

A virtuosic mastery of choral forces.
— St. Petersburg Scene, Russia

One of Canada’s very best choirs, this Vancouver ensemble – ably guided by artistic director Ramona Luengen – demonstrates its mastery of the choral repertoire…The performance is impeccable; indeed, the first nine songs, presented without applause, form one of the most beautiful suites of Christian sacred music I’ve ever heard.
— Canadian Christianity.com

I have just re-listened to your recording of my Ave Verum. There are now quite a number of them and I’ve heard it sung by many choirs. Your performance is in a class by itself. It gets nearer to the essence of the piece than any other and your insight is wonderful. I was deeply moved by the beauty of your singing. Thanks and all the very best.
— Colin Mawby, British composer

the-Huron-carol_fullTHE HURON CAROL
Phoenix Chamber Choir

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Huron Carol  |  Arr. Robert B. Anderson  |  maple-leaf

In the Bleak Midwinter  |  W. Llewellyn/G. Holst

Es is ein Ros’ entsprungen  |  M. Praetorius /J. Sandström

Uns ist ein Kind geboren  |  Heinz Werner Zimmerman

Carol of the Stable Dog  |  Corlynn Hanney  |  maple-leaf

How Far is It to Bethlehem  |  Arr. A. Parker/R. Shaw

Coventry Carol  |  Arr. Jonathan Rathbone

Here We Come A Caroling  |  Arr. Phil Mattson

The Little Road to Bethlehem  |  Michael Head

Hodie Christus natus est  |  Niels la Cour

A Boy Was Born  |  Benjamin Britten

A Christmas Carol  |  Charles Ives

Jingle Bells  |  Arr. Gordon Langford

Home for the Holiday  |  Diana Griffiths  |  maple-leaf

Quelle est cette odeur agréable  |  Arr. Donald Patriquin  |  maple-leaf

Nativitas tua  |  Plainchant

Ave Maria  |  Javier Busto

There is No Rose of Such Virtue  |  Arr. John Joubert

O Magnum Mysterium  |  Morten Lauridsen

Christmas Angel  |  Corlynn Hanney  |  maple-leaf

Silent Night  |  Arr. Miles Ramsay  |  maple-leaf

THE HURON CAROL CD REVIEWS

Magic, everything a Christmas album should be – sustained in mood, yet artfully varied within. A keeper.
— Vancouver Sun

An eclectic mixture of the familiar and the  rare, all performed with the rich tapestry of sound that is the hallmark of this group…the perfect CD to listen to while in front of a roaring fire on a cold wintry night.
— La Scena Musicale

Live_from_Copenhagen_fullPHOENIX: LIVE IN COPENHAGEN
Phoenix Chamber Choir

Recorded live in Copenhagen, 1996

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beata Virgo  |  David Griffiths

O Lacrimosa  |  Ramona Luengen  |  maple-leaf

Magnificat  |  Giles Swayne

O! Kosmos  |  Claude Vivier  |  maple-leaf

Spring is Here  |  Arr. Cortland Hultberg  |  maple-leaf

Lullaby of Birdland  |  Arr. Ron Smail  |  maple-leaf

Bonjour: et puis, quelles nouvelles?  |  Orlando de Lassus

Le Pont Mirabeau  |  Lionel Daunais  |  maple-leaf

From Les Chansons des Roses  |  Morton Lauridsen

  • En une seule fleur
  • Contre qui, rose                                                                                                                                                                                   

From Les Illusions Fanées  |  Jacques Hétu  |  maple-leaf

  • Gondolar
  • Le jardin d’antan

Fred hviler over land og by  |  Arr. Niels la Cour

When I Fall in Love  |  Arr. Cortland Hultberg  |  maple-leaf

Fix me, Jesus  |  Arr. Augustus O. Hill

Shenandoah  |  Arr. James Erb

Let’s Do It  |  Arr. Ken Malucelli

REVIEWS

They make a beautiful and perfectly blended sound… [and] are capable of singing the most demanding music. Rhythmically difficult works are sung with natural ease, but even more impressive is the group’s ability to deal with harmonically challenging music. Cole Porter’s Let’s Do it, which the choir delivers with classy aplomb, is dazzling, and it quite rightly brought the house down.
— Classical Music Magazine

I congratulate you for the high quality of the performance of the entire programme. Above all, I appreciate the great sensitivity and the perfect understanding of the subject in my two pieces [Gondolar; Le jardin d’antan]. I can tell you that I have not often heard my vocal music sung with such results. Bravo and thank you!”
— Jacques Hétu, Canadian composer

 

CONCERT AND GENERAL REVIEWS
PHOENIX CHAMBER CHOIR

 

Under the direction of Ramona Luengen, this diminutive choir weaves brilliant aural tapestries.
— Georgia Straight

 The choir’s vocal control was stunning, yet the performance was warm, embracing, and life-affirming.
— Georgia Straight

Sonic splendor…technical perfection.
— Georgia Straight

 

On the Threshold of Heaven

On Saturday at Shaughnessy Heights United Church the Phoenix Chamber Choir, technically an amateur vocal ensemble but one with an entirely professional attitude and sound, offered one of the more interesting choral concerts of the spring.This program of mainly 20th century sacred repertoire was typical of the vision of Phoenix conductor Ramona Luengen, who brings a certain high-minded austerity to her best work. This is not to say that things are stuffy, dull, or redolent of either the musicology seminar or the new music seance. Her repertoire is fresh and well chosen, and she shows minimal interest in pieces whose primary objective is to flatter singers or pander to superficial audience expectations. At a Phoenix program you can expect to encounter music truly worth learning and hearing, arranged with a composer’s ear for logic and contrast.

©David Gordon Duke 9 May 2010 Musical Notes

The Bach Project: Jesu, meine Freude

Singing continuously, with neither breaks for applause nor interval, was no mean feat for the choir. An extraordinarily demanding repertoire, and mercurial changes in mood and idiom, were guided by Luengen’s full-bodied approach to her materials, and her choir delivered consistently. The evening’s final juxtaposition had the mystic ecstasy of James Macmillan’s Christus vincit segueing, almost more by faith than reason, into the quiet but confident final chorale setting of Bach’s masterwork, Jesu meine Freude.
— The Vancouver Sun

Bravo! Very sensitive and musical approach…Masterful sense of styles. High level of control and expressivity. Beautiful sonority.
— 2000 CBC National Choral Competition – Jury comments

 One of the most beautiful concerts of the entire Mosel Festwochen took place in the Stiftskirche St. Kastor in Treis-Karden. With its spectacular acoustic, the church was predestined for an extraordinary concert of a cappella music. And it was not disappointed. The concert with the Phoenix Chamber Choir, one of Canada’s finest vocal ensembles, was for the audience a “Gesamtkunstwerk” of crystal-clear voices, precise intonation and a stupendous cosmos of sounds.
— Rhein-Zeitung, Germany

Rare perfection…
— Speyerer Rundschau, Germany

 

 Dear Ramona:

Your CD arrived this morning. It’s wonderful – not just What Child is This? which is everything I hoped it would be – but the whole CD! What a lovely concert – I just wish I’d been there. I think everything you do is so beautifully musical. As a composer, you understand so well what is intended in the writing.
— Jonathan Rathbone, British Composer