Brian Field has a lustrous career that spans across various industries and fields of work. The masterful New York based orchestrator pens down lavish pieces of classically inspired tracks that feel fitting in a multitude of scenarios across ballet, television, film, and more. On ‘Vocal Works’, he’s allowed for precisely the title presumes. There’s a central attention paid to the human voice as a harmonic instrument of its own. Filled with acapella harmonies from back to front, the overarching instrumental arrangement plays second fiddle the the combined effects of these harmonies as the driving force of each piece. Far from a modernistic album. ‘Vocal Works’ is classical through and through. It remains core to its vision, combining elements of choir and gospel with orchestral classical to create a magical thirteen track undertaking that would appeal to fans of classic music unlike any other.
Sprinkled in with influences of post-romanticism, minimalism, and Jazz, Field’s compositional diversity within the larger sphere of classic music is well achieved on this sizably audacious and meticulously articulated record. Throughout the album, the Budapest Chorus conducted by Martón Tóth brings dynamism and emotion to every note.
It feels transcendental, the kind of cinematic grandiosity you’d feel necessary in an operatic scene of an otherwise seismic scale. Each track brings such magnificence in scale and prowess that you can’t help but feel in awe of the intricacies behind each arrangement. It succeeds in execution and in ambition and might make a fan out of even the ones without classical backgrounds.