I’m not entirely sure how to categorise Nicholas Weininger’s All Is Mere Breath.  I guess, essentially it’s an oratorio inspired by the COVID pandemic when “breath” was very much on people’s minds.  It’s written for three soloists; soprano, mezzo-soprano and baritone, men’s chorus and instrumental ensemble.  It mostly sets texts from the Old Testament with the soloists singing in English and the chorus in Hebrew.  It concludes with the Hebrew prayer “Oseh Shalom”.  It begins though, in Hebrew, with the opening of Lamentations; “How she sits alone, the city once great with people.” which I guess sums up how many of us felt in 2020. when I remember walking down an utterly deserted Bay Street in the middle of a work day.  The selection of texts really does reflect “desolation” which covers quite a bit of the Old Testament really.

It’s a very colourful, tonal score.  It reflects the mood of the texts with a certain grimness.  The make up and identity of the instrumental ensemble is not given anywhere I could find but there’s some really nice dark toned string playing and some interesting passages for flute.  The chorus is the Empire City Men’s Chorus; a New York choir with a strong LGBTQ history, and they are excellent.  The soloists are very good too.  Amy Buckley (soprano), Blythe Gaissert (mezzo-soprano) and Brian Mextorf are all clearly highly competent young singers.  The conductor is the choir’s music director Vince Peterson.

It’s a very vivid recording, made in 2023 in the Church of the Ascension in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.  It’s a churchy acoustic which suits the music and it’s clear, well balanced and captures the colours of the music nicely.

It’s a digital release with options of MP3, CD quality FLAC and 48kHz/24bit FLAC.  I listened to the hi-res version.  It’s also available on streaming services.  There’s no booklet but the album page on the record company’s website has all the information you might want (except for details of the instrumentalists!).

Catalogue information: Navona Records NV 6587S1