SITE RATING: 1/10
SITE
REVIEW: A short, chorus-only
highlights album from The Corpus Christi
Chorale under the direction of Ronnie Sanders,
this amateur recording holds no interest for Messiah
collectors, other than its rarity. With
a dim, organ-only accompaniment, and lots of
extraneous noise present, the hearer's only
hopes lie in the performance itself, which,
under the leaden hand of its director, has no
chance of taking flight. The Corpus
Christi Chorale are earnest, but underserved
by the muddy ambiance, poorly-recorded sound,
and their own limitations, which includes
disunity, too-often occurrences of pitch
issues, and the aforementioned uninspired
direction of Mr. Sanders. Which is
doubly unfortunate, since the apparent sole
purpose of this release is to tout his
"highly-imaginative choral rehearsal
techniques" and his "sensitive musical
artistry through his passionate, sweeping
gestures" all of which are lauded in the
self-serving, entirely navel-gazing liner
notes which fill up the entirety of the single
sheet of information insert, which is also
quick to point out that Mr. Sanders is eager
and ready to accept any "conducting
engagements, conferences, workshops, clinics,
adjudication and as a guest speaker or writer"
job offered him. I'm certain that, if
you are Ronnie's parents, this laudatory
souvenir is something to be treasured, but for
all others, it's a torturous listen.
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