David Lang: Love Fail (Version for Women’s Chorus)

David Lang composed “love fail” in 2012 for the vocal quartet Anonymous 4; the work was conceived as a rumination on the timelessness of love, weaving together details from the story of Tristan and Isolde with more modern sources. This newly expanded choral arrangement, performed by the renowned Lorelei Ensemble and conducted by Beth Willer, adds haunting texture and power, as well as a more fully rounded sound, to Lang’s austere original. Praised for their “impeccable musicality and pure-voiced precision” by the Boston Globe after the 2016 premiere of this version for women’s chorus, Lorelei brings that same unmatched skill to the recording. From the hypnotic layers of the opening “he was and she was” to the almost devoutly meditative mood of “Head, Heart,” there’s an immediate sense of having captured an entirely new way of experiencing one of Lang’s most soulful and mysterious works.