The Bells: Shaw / Atlanta.so & Cho.

This disc received the 1998 Grammy Award for "Best Choral Performance."
Although 'Harmonium' incorporates the steady, hallmark pulse of the Minimalist school, the work was borne out of the composer's frustration with what he calls the stifling "Great Prairies of non-event" that he felt plagued the school of Minimalist composition in the 1970s. A gorgeous piece, and one which receives what is perhaps its definitive performance here, 'Harmonium' is a feast of evocative harmonies that recalls Beethoven's cantata, 'Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage.'
'The Bells' by Rachmaninov, a birth-to-death piece inspired by a translation of a poem by Edgar Allan Poe, is a work of varying emotional temperaments that effectively capture the various stages of life. With Shaw's buoyant and masterful reading of the opening Allegro, this first movement encapsulates the jaunty, sunny nature and innocence of youth. But with the Lento the carefree essence of youth gives way to the serenity that comes with courtship and marriage. Hints of sorrow underscore the feeling of foreboding in the next movement, Presto, as old age approaches. Finally, the "pessimistic passion" (as one Russian critic put it) of the Lento lugubre harrowingly captures the inevitability and finality of death.