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Gramophone

Mark Buller ponders a host of moral issues in these works performed by the sterling choral ensemble Conspirare. The repertoire includes Mass in Exile, which probes alienation, immigration and global disarray, and Requiem in the Light, an expression of anguish and hope in the face of genocide and existential threats.

So much darkness might prompt a listener to shy away from the panoply of lamentations and sadness but Buller is a composer who knows how to imbue feelings with ample warmth, colour and tension that keep the ear immersed in his sonic worlds. The musical language is largely tonal, with some roots in sacred choral traditions, yet with sufficient harmonic pungency to provide underpinnings of meaning to Leah Lax’s empathetic, urgent texts in the two extended works.

A number of the movements in Mass in Exile begin with incipits played by solo guitar that lead to pleadings for compassion and understanding. Buller, who escaped a fundamentalist upbringing, has cast a bass soloist as himself trying to reconcile his religious disorientation. The seven movements are varied in atmosphere and texture, with choral lines that radiate from myriad directions and instrumental writing for strings and percussion full of dramatic and rhythmic implication. In the final movement, ‘When all else falls away (Benedictus)’, the chorus fades away as if paying homage to the ending of Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde (in the same key, C major).

Hushed unison humming and sliding tones introduce ‘Lacrimosa for the Murdered’, the first of five movements in Requiem in the Light. Throughout the piece, the music closely reflects the messages in the texts, from glowing utterances to episodes of utter grief. Buller employs voices and instruments with subtle skill.

The large works are framed by two shorter scores, Introit: Fruit of Your Heart and Communion: A Questioning, lyrical evocations of texts by Euan Tait. Conspirare, led by founding Artistic Director Craig Hella Johnson, respond to all of Buller’s emotional gestures with utmost cohesion and flexibility, and the soloists – basses Michael Hawes and Simon Barrad and soprano Emily Yocum Black – are first-rate.