CD Review: Mormon Tabernacle Choir & Friends

Purchase: Amazon | Deseret Book

CD Description:

The Mormon Tabernacle Choir has collaborated with some of the most legendary vocalists and performers over the years. For this album, the Choir has assembled an unprecedented collection of recordings taken from standout performances over the past 15 years. Most of these performances were recorded live at the 20,000+ seat Conference Center in Salt Lake City. In addition, some real gems were uncovered or created specifically for this album, including a performance recorded live before millions of viewers at the start of the 2002 Winter Olympics (Sting & Yo-Yo Ma performing "Fragile") and new recordings such as Amy Grant's "Thy Word," The King's Singers' "I'm Running On," and Santino Fontana's "He Lives in You."

Album includes 11 tracks:

• Fragile, feat. Sting & Yo-Yo Ma
• The Prayer (from Quest for Camelot, feat. David Foster
• Thy Word, feat. Amy Grant
• That Lonesome Road, feat. James Taylor
• He Lives in You (from The Lion King), feat. Santino Fontana
• How Can I Keep from Singing?, feat. Renee Fleming
• Through Heaven's Eyes (from The Prince of Egypt), feat. Brian Stokes Mitchell
• Vitae Lux, feat. Sissel
• Homeward Bound, feat. Bryn Terfel
• Beauty and the Beast (from Beauty and the Beast), feat. Angela Lansbury
• I'm Runnin' On, feat. The King's Singers

Review:

The Mormon Tabernacle Choir & Friends CD is a great collection that has something for everyone. Each track is a powerful performance, and I enjoyed having it play on repeat while I worked on the computer.

My favorite song is "Through Heaven's Eyes" featuring Brian Stokes Mitchell, followed closely by "That Lonesome Road" featuring James Taylor. While I didn't love every song, I really liked most of them, and I listened to the CD over and over. I'm happy to add this to my collection.

About the Mormon Tabernacle Choir:

The 360 members of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir represent men and women from many different backgrounds and professions and range in age from 25 to 60. They reflect a medley of unique lives and experiences and are brought together by their love for singing and their faith. Their incomparable voices are the common chord that unites to form the choral group known all over the world as the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

The Mormon Tabernacle Choir originated in the mid-19th century in Salt Lake City. As the Latter-day Saints moved west, Church President Brigham Young included musicians among members of the advance parties. Consequently, a small choir first sang for a conference of the Church in the Salt Lake Valley on August 22, 1847, just 29 days after the first group arrived. The origins of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir may be found in the desire and commitment of early converts to include appropriate music in both sacred and secular events.

The Mormon Tabernacle Choir has appeared at 13 world's fairs and expositions, performed at the inaugurations of five U.S. presidents, and sung for numerous worldwide telecasts and special events. Five of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's recordings have achieved "gold record" and two have achieved "platinum record" status. The most popular was the Grammy-Award-winning 1959 release of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" with the Philadelphia Orchestra.