When performances began to shut down in March of 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, the members of the fine small choir The Crossing did not dissociate from each other and retreat into their own homes. They began to meet on Zoom and review their past live performances, discussing not only their musical qualities but their resonances in a time of crisis. Rising w/The Crossing was the result. In some of the works, the references to the 2020 situation are explicit. The opening Protect Yourself from Infection, by David Lang, was recorded in 2019 and sets a public health text from the 1918 influenza pandemic, but one couldn't ask for more in terms of up-to-the-minute relevance. Other references are more oblique and point not only to the pandemic but also to the tumultuous U.S. political situation; Alex Berko's Lincoln, with a stark and simple text by the former dean of Washington National Cathedral, is especially effective. For the first time, The Crossing performs early music, in the form of a pair of excerpts from Buxtehude's Membra Jesu nostri, on the theme of suffering. For fans of The Crossing, a major attraction will be the chance to hear a selection of the choir's live performances, different from the sheen of their regular releases but equally well-wrought. Special recognition should go to producer Paul Vazquez, who also serves as mastering engineer; he fused a hugely diverse set of sound environments into a coherent set.
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