Get ready for a lengthy and very detailed review!
Speeches: These were so nice, I loved Koji's piano with a picture of Taichi and Koji as a baby. When Victor mentioned being told not to drop the record because it would crack, you can hear an adult laughing behind the camera (I bet it was the same person that told him not to drop the record
)
Total Praise
Wow, a surprise, I was less of a fan when it was first sung in Krakow, but this new recording is growing on me. Daniel has a happy, cheerful solo, with a little bit of an echo. Ben and Matthias join, and have a wonderful trio. This is one of my highlights of the song. Such beautiful blending (thank you sound mixers).
Then, more and more join in to make a really large group of singers, including many lower voices. To my ear they make a huge difference. I love the amens. They come slowly and build in volume and harmony, making luscious and multilayered sound.
The whole choir as a whole sparkles: hard to describe, sort of a shimmer from the octaves being perfectly tuned.
There is a nice section with amazing high vocalises done by Luca and Dominik, extremely in tune and clear.
The end has those perfectly tuned octaves sung in full force, and the shimmering, sparkling sound is extremely resonant. So cool, it’s like listening to an echo chamber. Tuned octaves are so difficult, so congratulations to the boys and the editing team.
Deep Peace
This was my favorite song of the miniconcert. Unexpected, but really well done. I loved hearing so many different solos, every single one was so well sung. It also highlighted a wonderful range of voice types : Oliver: my favorite voice at the moment, he has such an amazing range with ringing, balanced, gentle tones throughout all his notes. Ben: His voice has developed greater depth and maturity, and is a good deal raspier than before, but now it’s quite relaxing, to me like the sound of a seashell. Laurence: Brilliant voice, literally brilliant and shiny, so focused and bright. It has a youthful vigor and a glimmer. Neo: Really strong, vibrant, and gentle.
The editing of this one made use of the sky to show dawn, sunlight/noon, and ending with night. Effective imagery, matching the airy quality of the music
Luca normally has a beautiful and strong vibrato but the editing seemed to morph it so the amplitude was shorter and the wavelength was faster, it sounds different! However, still extraordinary for a boy who just turned 10 (or is about to). The delicate, serene nature of his singing is sounds to me like how soft cloth feels.
The choir is so full and light in this one, extremely vibrant and present yet never forceful. I loved how some boys would join in then ebb away and stop singing, making waves of receding sound
Perfect for the mood of the concert, generally slow, peaceful, and relaxing. I find this song really showcases the voices of the choir right now. Lots of gentle, soft, and childlike-sounding (in a good way!) voices.
O For The Wings Of A Dove
Wow. Dominik is even better than he was in December, he improves so quickly in such a short period of time. This was a solo in its entirety, and as he is 13, perhaps is one of his final chances to record before the voice change. I liked his innate musicality, he has a pure and deep understanding of how to communicate emotions through singing. This comes through in his talent for phrasing, volume, controlling tonal color, and even expressing with his face. He is also very humble, something I picked up on just by watching how he sings. The humble interpretation matches the lyrics and the song very well. My favorite parts were the long lines and crescendos on “forever at rest”.
Ave Maria
Tadgh has really developed his voice, and has a really expressive, warm sound with a nice vibrato. While not a dig at Tadgh’s performance or his singing, I prefer Tom’s version for it’s technical perfection, soft phrasing, and ringing tone. I feel as if Tom’s voice suits the song a little more, as it is more ethereal and light, compared to Tadgh’s grounded and rich voice. Of course, it’s all a matter of personal taste. Tadgh seems to struggle a little bit with phrasing, and creating smooth, connected musical lines. I sometimes felt he was a little tense and anxious, anticipating the more difficult aspects. You could see by watching his expression that he was thinking hard. Nevertheless, incredible talent, and quite enjoyable to listen to.
About the choir: Outstanding, their backing here was my second favorite part of the whole concert. The gentle “amen” parts by the choir as a whole are my highlight for this song
Smile
Victor was made to sing this song, and he does it wonderfully. His pitch is perfect as always (he may have perfect pitch or extremely accurate relative pitch, as I suspected in his quarantine video when he sang a little segment of a song exactly in tune without the use of a reference).
His voice is so mysterious, a little breathy, with slight raspy imperfections that complement his tone. For me, he brings out the wisdom, sadness, longing, AND optimistic hope of this song. I loved Gabe’s rendition of this song as well, which was sung with intuitive understanding. His was a little more bright, while I felt Victor’s darker tonal colors brought out wise and wistful elements of the song.
Matthias just keeps getting better, he is developing a really beautiful low range, lower than most trebles at his age. To me, it sounds like he is just beginning the early stages of voice change, but is one of the lucky boys that has a slow transition. Thus he can sing both treble and lower alto parts with ease. His tonal quality here matched Victor’s exactly; mysterious, wistful, yet somehow also hopeful. What a beautiful voice, I hope this kid gets more chances to record before his range slowly deepens.
In this song, Calam has a wonderful smile on his face the entire time, very genuine. A pleasure to watch
The lower voices really shine, with a prominent role. They have really nice voices that I sometimes wish they could attend in person concerts and be featured more. Really light, clear, pure singing to match that of the trebles.
The ending is incredible, light “aaaahs” that slowly decrescendo, extremely gentle and beautiful singing, especially the low and high voices which hold the same note and frame the middle, moving notes. These seem to float and drift higher, up and away.
Joyful Joyful
I was very impressed by the synchronized mixing of the introductory pizzicato beats on the strings. Those little notes are fast and I believe are really difficult to edit in time
The boys seem to be edited, once again, in their voice groups! The upper two rows being first and second trebles (Luca and Dominik as high firsts on the upper left corner) and the third and fourth rows being third and fourth trebles, and the fifth row being lower voices.
The miniboys get their own row and pop in at times. There is one miniboy who has the biggest grin on his face. While I don’t know who he is, it is lovely to watch him singing, and he perfectly matches this song. There is a nice montage where the upper trebles are in the upper row, the miniboys singing the melody are in the center, and the lower trebles are in the lowest row.
I especially loved watching Dominik and Neo singing this one, they clearly love to sing and effortlessly smile through the whole song.
I also noticed Alex M. dropping out of some higher sections of the song (even for the lower bass-tenor), it seems he is in the midst of developing a fairly deep voice! Striking, as he had such a high treble voice.
Daniel is brilliant, his voice matches the solo. To me his tonal quality sounds bright, cheerful, and welcoming. Dominik and Luca have enchanting descants, extremely well mixed and blended by the sound producers (thoroughly blended with each other as a duet, and with Daniel’s solo as well)
The violins have an extremely technically precise run here that is very well played and lined up audio wise, which really adds to the feeling of the song. I think of the strings here as running water, like a cheerful singing brook.
My favorite part of this song is the ahhs from 2:59 to 3:07, which form a dissonance that is perfect to my ears.
The ending is climactic and powerful, but my favorite quirk… the editors did not cut off every boy at the exact same second, so one boy holds his note out for a tad too long at the end and you can hear his voice alone for a split second (try listening for a high F). Looking through the videos, it appears to be Laurence Davey! This was very pleasant actually, not at all musically off-putting or distracting. He has a very pure, gentle tone that added a sort of “halo effect” (like an echo coming off the end of the song).
Amazing concert, exceeded my expectations!
There's a lot you wrote which puts my own feelings in words.
but then I overlooked.. argh! I am in dire need of a holiday, that's my only excuse 
