Antigone
New Focus, 2022
8/10
An outfit led by the artistic director Beth Willer, the Lorelei Ensemble interpret the work of James Kallembach, where Sarah Brailey, Rebecca Myers Hoke, Jessica Beebe, and Arwen Myers bring their sopranos, the mezzo-sopranos Christina English and Sophie Michaux are in attendance, and the altos Stephanie Kacoyanis and Emily Marvosh are also on hand.
“Ecce quomodo moritur” opens the listen with soothing, soaring vocal harmonizing from the sopranos as the moody strings enter the cautious climate, and “During the time of the great war” follows with the expressive singing and firm strings emitting both tension and beauty.
Further along, the highly meticulous “Trio/Creon: Then, Creon, knowing that the people” balances intimacy and eloquence with much grace, while “Creon/Chorus” finds a more haunting, cinematic place to reside with its chilling voice and eerie strings.
The final portion leads with the bright voices of “Chorus/Antigone: Farewell my friends, my countrymen”, where carefully plucked strings and sublime harmonizing make for the album’s best selection, and its chorus/duet exits the listen with a more bare and very pretty finish of poetic, captivating singing.
The cello quartet of Caleb van der Swaagh, Lisa Caravan, Michael Unterman, and Jonathan Dexter, sure do a superb job of highlighting the many voices and Kallembach’s storytelling that draws inspiration from the writings of Sophie Scholl and the White Rose Movement, who denounced the Nazi government in the early ‘40s, and were executed for their anti-Nazi views.
Travels well with: String Noise- Way; Marti Epstein- Nebraska Impromptu