CD Review | Songs of Hope Scarborough Philharmonic Orchestra

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Songs of Hope

Scarborough Philharmonic Orchestra; Danielle MacMillan, mezzo-soprano; Maghan McPhee, soprano; composers Shreya Jha, Elienna Wang, Ted Runcie, Leela Gilday, Daniel Mehdizadeh, Rachel McFarlane, Bruno Degazio, Ronald Royer

Akashic Classics, 2025 

Songs of Hope is a song cycle of newly composed works, in which each composer addresses the theme “through adversity, hope.” The musical responses to this theme are interesting in their diversity. Shreya Jha’s Walk With Me is about the solace one can find in having a dream about a loved one who has died, while Ronald Royer’s Women of Dante’s Divine Comedy: Three Songs provides a glimpse into Dante’s hell, purgatory and paradise. 

Royer’s piece is perhaps the most musically interesting on the album. The piece begins with a whirling, seemingly bottomless melodic line in the strings and clarinet, which evocatively depict the stormy winds and never-ending pits of hell. In paradise, the steady and slow-moving harmonic changes give one the impression of arrival at a final destination. 

Bruno Degazio’s Seven Parables of the Rising Dawn is another strong piece. In it, he uses a variety of orchestral textures and interweaving melodic lines to create the impression of a dialogue between Sophia (Wisdom) and Thomas Aquinas. 

The compositions on this album are not all of the same calibre. While Royer’s pieces sound like the work of a professional craftsman, Daniel Mehdizadeh’s quasi-minimalist New Castles sounds more like the work of a student composer. Other compositions, such as Rachel McFarlane’s Eternal Embrace and Shreya Jha’s Walk With Me are Disney-esque pieces which, while well-crafted, do not match the originality of Royer and Degazio’s pieces. 

While the kind and quality of these pieces are very different, they are very united in one thing: each piece seems mismatched to the talents of both singers. Their extremely operatic delivery and bold dynamics clash with the instrumental parts in each piece. I can imagine these voices being better suited to opera or very dramatic film music. In this song cycle, however, it was difficult to make out text due to the singers’ bold delivery. The balance between the orchestra and singers was also off, with the latter placed too far forward. 

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This page is also available in / Cette page est également disponible en: Francais (French)