‘Seven Songs for Planet Earth’ reviewed
23 May 2011
Norman Scribner, the chorus’s founder and artistic director, presumably wanted something big and meaningful for the end of his penultimate season (he’s stepping down a year from now). This piece touched all the bases. It has a contemporary theme: the environment. It uses honorable texts (four poems by Wendell Berry) and incorporates folk music (the Sami, or Lapp, tradition known as yoiking) and cute children (the Children’s Chorus of Washington). Musically, it’s approachable, meaning inoffensive to an audience that would rather be hearing another Verdi Requiem or Carmina Burana.
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