Robert Shaw - O Magnum Mysterium (2020)

Robert Shaw is dead, but his recorded legacy lives on -- that is, if you can call recordings living. Telarc -- the label which served Shaw so faithfully in life by recording the greatest American choral conductor who ever lived in the core choral repertoire in exemplary sound -- Telarc is releasing every little scrap of music that the grand old man ever recorded. If sometimes those scraps are rather scrappy, well, we must be grateful. How else would we ever hear the master in such recherché repertoire as Tallis and Victoria? And if these scraps are released in tandem with previously available Shaw recordings, well, it's always good to have them reassembled in context of a program which makes sense, in this case a program dedicated to the "great mystery" -- the great mystery which is music itself. Although three-quarters of the music on this disc has been out before, the program of (mostly) religious pieces does work well as a whole. The one exception is Schubert's glorious Der Entfernten (The Distant One), which, it could conceivably be argued, is a spiritual work.

Needless to say, the performances are exemplary and Telarc's sound stupendous. The disc is imperative for those who have to have everything Shaw ever did, and highly recommended to those who simply want an interesting and beautiful collection of choral works. ~ James Leonard