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SITE RATING:  6/10 SITE REVIEW:  A privately issued recording, this 1995 selection of highlights by The Covenant Presbyterian Church in Nashville, Tennessee under the direction of David Dunham has some striking performances which caught my ear.  First, the recording is live, and not as immediate in its sound as I would like; there is intermittent audience noise, but not a distracting amount. Dunham utilizes three sopranos for this performance, and despite notes on individual choir and orchestra members, as well as the text for the pieces included, there is no listing of which Soprano soloist sings which aria, which I found strange.  The orchestra is very good, playing with excellent tone and unity, and the Chancel Choir is similarly very good, not professional class, but not the run-of-the-mill amateur choir either - obviously an auditioned choir, with good blend and tone.  The high standard of the players and singers lift this recording up above other privately-released albums.  But what caught my ear particularly was alto soloist Vicki Sells, who gives one of the most impassioned readings of "He Was Despised" that I've ever heard - the raw emotion caught in her performance is worth hearing, even if not performed in a strict "baroque" or even "classical" sense.  The soprano soloists are all very good, and I wish I could distinguish which soprano sang what.  Tenor Chris McKim is the weak link here, with a tremulous and thin outing on "Thy rebuke hath broken His heart" and "He was cut off" - although part of the problem may be that he sounds more distant in the mix.  The album features only two long tracks, with the first six cuts strung together, and the final five making up the second track.  Still, for such a short album, I was happy to hear it, in only for Vicki Sells searing "He was despised".

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