Consortium/Andrew-John Smith Hyperion CDA 67762 ***

You could take Max Reger's 1899 setting of Nikolaus Lenau's Frühlingsblick (A glimpse of Spring)as a test- case. If you're transported by the composer's handling of the transition into joyous spring, and persuaded by Consortium's handling of it, then this may be a disc for you. The vertiginous chromaticism of the instrumental introduction to the disc's opening piece, Der Einsiedler(here given with piano rather than orchestral accompaniment) is a good foretaste of what's to come. Reger's music blends a Bachian fondness for counterpoint with the romanticism of the late 19th century and a positively post-Wagnerian harmonic adventurousness. Consortium, the London-based chamber choir, deliver the music with enviable technical command. The intonation is sure, the tone is attractive. And yet . . . it sometimes sounds a little too close to the English cathedral tradition. See url.ie/4qdb