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[Review] Saint Louis Reflections
John Quinn of MusicWeb International
July 30, 2024
The Saint Louis Chamber Chorus [...] has been assiduous in commissioning new pieces and making premiere recordings; all the pieces on this disc were commissioned for the SLCC.
[...] Pragmatism also marks out Melissa Dunphy's approach in We are the music makers. As we read in the booklet, this piece was requested from Dunphy as Covid restrictions were staring to ease and choirs, including SLCC, were beginning to feel their way back to normality. As anyone involved in choral singing — or any kind of music making — will recall, one never knew when the restrictions might be applied again; nor was there any certainty as to the readiness of individuals to take part in group activities. So, [Dr.] Dunphy was asked for a four-part setting with piano accompaniment. She took for her text the first three stanzas of Arthur O'Shaughnessy's poem which Elgar set in full in The Music Makers. Dunphy's setting of the words is nowhere near as complex as Elgar's, but that's not the point. The piece was specifically designed to get people back singing together again. As such, we can see it as an expression of post-Covid resolution that music can and must go on. [...]