“The ACC delivers a golden sound, soaring high notes and grounding low ones. There’s a youthful vigour to the performance that makes you sit up and pay attention.”
Australian Chamber Choir | Encores
by Daniel Brace, on 18 October, 2026
CD out now
Can you believe we’re headed toward Christmas at an alarming rate? There are plenty of ads for Messiah appearing in my socials, so I know it’s time to make plans and think about gifts.
Encores is the latest CD from the Australian Chamber Choir and contains 17 tracks with music from the Baroque to the present day. It’s the same program that was presented at the recent concert held at Our Lady of Carmel Middle Park in Melbourne last week.
There are plenty of popular classics including movements from Handel’s Water Music and Music for the Royal Fireworks arranged by co-director of the ACC Elizabeth Anderson. These are so much fun to listen to, using nonsensical ‘scat’ or nonsense syllables. Followed by a very serious recording of Monteverdi’s Lauda Jerusalem.
There’s Stanford, Vaughan Williams and Holst in a 20th century English block. The singers that Directors Elizabeth Anderson and Douglas Lawrence have collected to form the ACC are so well balanced, the parts seamlessly blend.
Stephen Leek’s Kondalilla has sounds reminiscent of the Australian bush and again Malcolm Williamson employs wordless vocables for his fiendishly tricky The Quacks. Both translate very well in the recording and will delight and thrill the listener, as they did me. There’s a serving of the Romantic with Bruckner’s stunning Locus iste and Rheinberger’s Abendlied. And if the listener has ever sung in a choir they will be immersed in Mozart’s Ave verum corpus and Beethoven’s Ode to Joy, again arranged by Elizabeth Anderson.
To round things off, there are a number of arrangements of Afro-American Spirituals by Moses Hogan. I love Didn’t my Lord deliver Daniel for obvious reasons. Morten Lauridsen’s O magnum mysterium is the only Christmas themed work on the CD which reflects on the wonder of the Nativity.
Just like the concert performance, the ACC delivers a golden sound, soaring high notes and grounding low ones. There’s a youthful vigour to the performance that makes you sit up and pay attention. If you’re looking to stuff stockings or give with the intent of sitting and listening with your loved one or by yourself, Encores will deliver plenty of memorable moments and beautiful music you can listen to over and over again.
This CD can be purchased from ACC’s website.