The CD “Hope is Our Song” features the chamber choir, Viva Voce, with their conductor John Rosser and Michael Bell on the organ and piano performing a showcase of twenty-seven hymns from the recently published Hope is our Song, the latest hymnal from the New Zealand Hymnbook Trust.
Viva Voce is an accomplished choir and the balance between voice, and voices and instruments, is excellent. Careful thought has been put into colouring the verses of each hymn while working within the limits set by choosing to keep faithful to the arrangements in the hymnbook. Variety but also sensitivity to the subject matter are provided by sometimes using voices only, sometimes voices and instrument, with a range of dynamics.
This CD is a high-class “sampler,” very useful for church musicians or those selecting music for services who are keen to use the latest offerings from some of our talented New Zealand hymn-writers, especially those as yet unfamiliar with the hymns or unable to play the music themselves. It is also a CD for the church music connoisseur. It does, however, work best as music for background listening. Only a small percentage of the words can be clearly discerned unless you know them already or are following them in the hymnbook or the word booklet provided with the CD. It is not a CD suitable for congregations to sing along to. The Hymnbook Trust provide “karaoke CDs” for this purpose, though not of this particular hymnbook yet.
For more visit http://www.hymns.org.nz/
Review by Rosemary Dewerse in The Anglican, The magazine of the Anglican Diocese of Auckland