Michael Lawrence’s blog Fragmented Obsessions is a mix of politics, economics, and music, and Vespers is in his iPod, getting him in the Christmas spirit. Grand words, e.g.:
… commissioned by the early music ensemble Piffaro and conducted by Donald Nally, whose aforementioned group The Crossing (“the best chorus in Philadelphia,” according to one critic) joined in the music making.… Smith, a practicing Lutheran, develops a work that uses the outline, style, and language of a Renaissance German Vespers service, complete with period instruments—but with a decidedly modern sensibility.… in recent playbacks, I have become smitten with the Magnificat… This is a stunning work from start to finish, and melodious proof that the art of music is alive and well…
The rest is here. Still practicing…