David Hurwitz, Joan and the Bells
Joan and the Bells is a dramatic cantata in three movements that lasts about 21 never-boring minutes…The performance recorded here features the excellent Eric Ericson Chamber Choir…Soprano Lisa Delan has the right instincts for the title role as well as a sweetly innocent timbre… As Joan’s principal accuser, baritone Vladimir Chernov sounds aptly weighty and judgmental… Alexander Vedernikov and the Russian National Orchestra give [a] very committed performance of the score, and certainly Gordon Getty’s use of traditional harmony and his Romantic approach plays to the strengths of all concerned.
John Sunier, Joan and the Bells
This [CD] was quite a surprise to me… the words of the two excellent soloists and chorus [are] intelligible and very moving. The climax of the work comes when [Joan of Arc] is burned at the stake and in spite of the court having silenced any churchbells, loud bells from heaven are heard. The recording was made at a live concert in France and this section benefits tremendously from the realistic envelopment of the tumultuous pealing bells, which has a vertical dimension to it even though height channels are not being used. Talk about a big finish!
Joshua Rosenblum, Joan and the Bells
Gordon Getty’s cantata Joan and the Bells is a distinctive and musically appealing version of the Joan of Arc story, beginning with her trial for heresy and witchcraft, and building to a startling climax as she faces death at the stake…The second section, an eight-minute monologue for Joan…displays thematic unity and a consistent melodiousness. [Joan and the Bells] is dramatically assured, structurally sound, and likable without being obvious…eminently recommendable.
Ivan Moody, Joan and the Bells
Getty’s music is fluent and well orchestrated, and there are some very effective moments. It is, in fact, a skillfully written, very traditional kind of oratorio (the composer describes it as a cantata, but it fits squarely within the oratorio tradition as Walton, for instance, would have understood it).
J.F. Weber, Joan and the Bells
If you can forget about Getty’s money for 20 minutes, just listen to his 1998 cantata Joan and the Bells and evaluate the work on its own merits. Yes, it ignores almost every musical technique developed during Getty’s lifetime (he was born in 1933), and yes, it calls to mind the styles of other composers, most especially Samuel Barber, with a whiff of Vaughan Williams’s Sea Symphony in the choral writing. Yet it is a highly effective work, well written for the voices, ably orchestrated, thematically coherent, dramatically persuasive…. Unless your heart is hardened against new music that doesn’t really do anything new, Joan and the Bells is a fully engaging cantata, with its shimmering orchestration and vocal lines that are actually singable.