For those unaware, Award-winning Canadian composer Christopher Tyler Nickel’s penchant for imaginative combinations of instruments translates to his latest AVIE release, Music for Woodwind Choirs.

Each movement of the “Suite for Two Oboes and Two Cors Anglais”, takes its title from four prayers in the Christian liturgy – Kyrie, Dies Irae, Lacrimosa, Gloria – each one an abstract representation of the overall spirit and sentiment of these devotions.

Christopher’s “Symphony for Flute Choir” is a larger scale work for four flutes, plus piccolo, alto and bass flutes, that embodies an emotional breadth on a symphonic scale.

Suite for Two Oboes and Two Cors Anglais (2017)
1. I. Kyrie [4:29]
2. II. Dies Irae [4:50]
3. III. Lacrimosa [3:21]
4. IV. Gloria [2:40]

Roger Cole, Karin Walsh, oboes
Beth Orson, Erin Marks, Cors Anglais
Clyde Mitchell, conductor

This beautifully sculpted work of musical art begins on the Suite for Two Oboes and Two Cors Anglais (2017), which itself open on the seductively smooth Kyrie, then comes the elegant grandeur of Dies Irae, the pensive, yet confidently curious Lacrimosa, culminating on the flourishing Gloria.

Symphony for Flute Choir (2017)
5. Movement I [12:11]6. Movement II [5:33]
7. Movement III [7:14]
8. Movement IV [9:56]

Sarah Jackson, piccolo
Christie Reside, Rosanne Wieringa, Laura Vanek, Paul Hung, flutes
Anne-Elise Keefer, alto flute, Paolo Bortolussi, bass flute
Clyde Mitchell, conductor

Then we get the Symphony for Flute Choir (2017) which opens on the sternly opulent, twelve-minute Movement I, then we get brought forth the stoically-charmed, gently formidable Movement II, the emotively impassioned Movement III, the piece, and the set as a whole, coming to a close on the playfully confident, perky and adventurous, near ten minute Movement IV.

Official Purchase Link

www.christophernickel.com