Reviews 

Minneapolis StarTribune
July 25, 2010:
"...[I]n its brief appearances in Acts I and II [of Puccini's Tosca, the Minnesota Chorale] sang robustly, filling the hall."
--William Randall Beard
 
St. Paul Pioneer Press
January 15, 2010:
"[The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra], Minnesota Chorale, conductor Edo de Waart and seven very impressive vocal soloists performed a 'Rake's Progress' that will likely be looked back upon as the triumph of [the SPCO's Stravinsky] festival. Impeccably executed with unflagging energy and inspiring musicianship, it not only illuminated the composer's genius, but left the enthusiastic audience debating who deserved the greatest praise for its success. ... [T]he Minnesota Chorale [created] a character all its own in W.H. Auden's surreal and humorous crowd scenes."
--Rob Hubbard
 
Minneapolis StarTribune
January 15, 2010:
"Although this was a concert presentation [of 'The Rake's Progress'], the whole evening took on an impressive dramatic shape and color, ... and the always fine Minnesota Chorale brought expert musicianship to the tricky choral parts."
--Michael Anthony
 
St. Paul Pioneer Press
December 11, 2009:
"If what you desire [from a performance of Handel's Messiah] is a sense of majesty and import, then the Cathedral of St. Paul was the place to be on Thursday night. The Minnesota Orchestra and Minnesota Chorale delivered an admirably precise performance. ... [The Chorale] employed a wide range of dynamics and a gentle touch to fugues that could have easily been overpowered."
--Rob Hubbard
 
Minneapolis StarTribune
June 12, 2009:
"The true star of the evening…was Minnesota Chorale. The work imposed incredible demands and they demonstrated real virtuosity throughout. They delivered impressive fortes but were most amazing in the more difficult pianissimos. And in the Credo's statement of faith, they sounded like they believed every word."
--William Randall Beard
 
St. Paul Pioneer Press
June 12, 2009:
"The Minnesota Chorale was clearly attuned to Vänskä's desire to employ a broad range of dynamics, often in rapid-fire fashion. Their tone remained rich over the course of several breakneck turns of mood on the 'Gloria,' and, after a transfixing one-sentence account of the Crucifixion, they emphatically punched each staccato syllable on the close of the 'Credo.'"
--Rob Hubbard
 
Minneapolis StarTribune
February 28, 2009:
"The Minnesota Orchestra's recording of Stephen Paulus' oratorio To Be Certain of the Dawn is a major event. This is a momentous work receiving a stellar performance. It's a disc that lovers of contemporary choral music will want to have in their collection.
 
"There are too few recordings of the magnificent Minnesota Chorale. With any luck, their dazzling work here will change that. They are ably partnered by the Minnesota Boychoir, the Basilica Cathedral Choir and the Cathedral Choristers."
--William Randall Beard
 
MinnPost
February 20, 2009:
"To Be Certain of the Dawn is a must-have recording for choral fans: "The Minnesota Orchestra has just released its recording of To Be Certain of the Dawn, the acclaimed Holocaust memorial oratorio by Stephen Paulus that received its debut at the Basilica of St. Mary in 2005. … [T]he recording creates a moment that is enveloping and deeply moving — heartbreaking in parts, actually — and there’s little doubt that it is among the masterpieces of Paulus’ long composing career.
 
"The recording involved massive resources: The Minnesota Orchestra, Minnesota Chorale, Minnesota Boychoir, the Basilica Cathedral Choir, the Cathedral Choristers, four soloists and a cantor. If you’re a fan of Minnesota-made choral music, you’ll want to have this disc in your collection."
--David Hawley
 
St. Paul Pioneer Press
December 20, 2008:
"On Friday night, the Minnesota Orchestra was one of five ensembles on stage for arrangements of Christmas music that swung, swooned, soothed and skipped along pleasantly. … When the orchestra wasn't lending its sumptuous sound to some lush arrangement of a seasonal song, the Minnesota Chorale was hypnotizing with its harmonies. … Other impressive performances came when the Minnesota Chorale's leader, Kathy Saltzman Romey, took the podium for a lovely arrangement of 'What Child is This?' "
--Rob Hubbard
 
St. Paul Pioneer Press
December 11, 2008:
"The Minnesota Orchestra … and its versatile vocal collaborators, the Minnesota Chorale, have become the Twin Cities' prime holiday purveyors of George Frideric Handel's oratorio, Messiah. … Wednesday evening's first offering of the '08 Messiah at Minneapolis' Basilica of St. Mary was an interpretation of great delicacy, one at its most compelling when letting the sadness emerge.
 
"The Minnesota Chorale overcame … the Basilica's voracious way of gobbling up notes and lyrics with a velvet touch.
 
"Under the direction of English conductor Christopher Warren-Green, it was a performance as graceful and smooth as his confident conducting."
--Rob Hubbard
 
Minneapolis StarTribune
September 27, 2008:
"Ralph Vaughan Williams' A Sea Symphony (Symphony No. 1) is a monumental and moving choral work. It's hard to understand why it is so rarely programmed. Yet [Friday's] performance at Orchestra Hall … touched the soul of this profound composition. … From the fortissimo opening, the Minnesota Chorale delivered a tour de force performance. …The text of the final movement was especially dense. But the setting and the performance conveyed mystical truths, ending the symphony with a sense of sublime mystery."
--William Randall Beard
 
St. Paul Pioneer Press
September 27, 2008: "Ralph Vaughan Williams' A Sea Symphony…was brought to vibrant, turbulent life by conductor Osmo Vänskä, the Minnesota Orchestra and a team of expert singers. … The words were wonderfully sung by the Minnesota Chorale, which seemed impressively comfortable with the composer's very British harmonies and an array of moods that runs from explosive martial fanfares to the ultra-soft pianissimos at the work's conclusion. … This was a case in which a concert offered so much that it's hard to imagine anyone could have left Minneapolis' Orchestra Hall unsatisfied."
--Rob Hubbard
 
Minneapolis StarTribune
May 15, 2008:
"Minnesota Chorale takes center stage at this week's Minnesota Orchestra concerts, singing three rarely heard choral works by Johannes Brahms. Under legendary guest conductor Helmuth Rilling, it is doubtful that these works could be heard better performed anywhere in the world."
--William Randall Beard
 
St. Paul Pioneer Press
May 15, 2008:
"[F]ans of choral music…will be delighted by the shiver-inspiring performances given [to Brahms's "Nänie" and "Schicksalslied"]. Of the many excellent choral groups in our area, the Minnesota Chorale has always struck me as particularly suited for the kind of rounded, uniformly textured part-singing that Brahms requires. … [T]he Chorale's sturdily supported singing and fine balance — credit artistic director Kathy Saltzman Romey for developing this — results in a wonderful reading of Brahms. The female voices, in particular, can handle the kind of long-flowing eruptive melodic lines without strain and the aching harmonies between all the vocal parts are clearly and beautifully revealed."
--David Hawley
 
Minneapolis StarTribune
December 14, 2007:
"The vocal highlight of the evening was the Minnesota Chorale. They sang joyously, making even the most overfamiliar music, like "Hallelujah Chorus" sound fresh. And with their exemplary diction, they communicated the meaning of the texts…"
--William Randall Beard
 
St. Paul Pioneer Press
December 13, 2007:
"[Conductor Stephen] Layton summoned up a gentle "Messiah," handled with care by the orchestra, the Minnesota Chorale and a quartet of strong vocal soloists. … A scaled-down 46-voice version of the Minnesota Chorale responded to Layton's leadership with admirable delicacy, especially on a finale that found power in gentleness."
--Rob Hubbard
 
Minneapolis StarTribune
November 9, 2007:
"[Arvo] Pärt is an exponent of what is most accurately described as 'sacred minimalism.' He uses the most limited melodic and harmonic resources and yet infuses them with deep mystery. … In Como cierva sedienta (As the Hart Pants), Pärt evolved beyond strict minimalism, though he retained a commitment to simplicity. His setting of Psalms 42 and 43 took on an element of intensity and drama. The texts, expressions of faith in the face of oppression, have their roots in Russian Orthodox chant, set against a frequently agitated and dissonant accompaniment. The women of the Minnesota Chorale sang this difficult music exquisitely, despite the punishingly high tessitura."
--William Randall Beard
 
Choral Journal
July, 2007:
"Osmo Vänskä's Ninth is notable for its energy and precision; the Scherzo in particular has been praised as perhaps the finest on disc. But let's cut to the chase--the finale, too, is just terrific. Kathy Saltzman Romey's Minnesota Chorale sings German with echt Viennese feeling but Berlin-style (i.e., breathtakingly clean) diction. Although Vänskä employs the new Barenreiter urtext edition, he allows the singers all of the exuberant, climactic moments that Beethoven surely intended; this is no cut-the-music-down-to-(our)-size 'historically informed' performance. … Highly recommended.”
--Lawrence Schenbeck
 
Audiophile Audition
October 21, 2006:
"…[T]he most powerful and exciting Ninth I have ever heard."
--John Sunier
 
Minneapolis StarTribune
October 13, 2006:
"Beethoven's grand choral finale, the goal toward which each of the earlier movements points, is trickier, especially given his unmerciful vocal writing. The Minnesota Chorale sings wonderfully, with spirit and superbly well-focused tone. The sopranos hit their string of high A's without strain, and the great climax on "Vor Gott!" is as thrilling as any you'll hear."
--Michael Anthony
 
ClassicsToday.com
September 22, 2006:
"…[T]he chorus sings magnificently throughout, and with such clarity of diction that you can practically transcribe the text of Schiller's ode even if you don't know German. As with the instrumental contribution, Vänskä gets all of his singers to communicate the sense of the music with remarkable immediacy, and even with swift basic tempos there's plenty of weight at such places as the big tenuto on "vor Gott!" as well as in the choral fugue with its spectacular soprano climax."
--David Hurwitz
 
St. Paul Pioneer Press
Saturday, April 29, 2006:
"…[T]hanks to the sure hand of conductor Roberto Abbado and the skilled singing of the Minnesota Chorale and four soloists, Friday night's concert proved a heavenly delight. …[T]he most transcendent sections of the concert came on such achingly beautiful distillations of pure sadness as the Laudate Dominum from [Mozart's] "Vesperae solennes de confessore" and the more solemn sections of the [Coronation] Mass. At such times, the chief cherubim transporting listeners to celestial bliss were the Minnesota Chorale - displaying its customarily outstanding sense of dynamics - and Karina Gauvin … who suffused each sigh-inducing solo with light and loveliness."
--Rob Hubbard
 
St. Paul Pioneer Press
Friday, January 13, 2006:
"Thursday night's first offering of [Beethoven's 9th] proved perhaps the most exciting take on the symphony local audiences may ever have the fortune to experience. … But the most exhilarating performance came from the Minnesota Chorale, which has likely never sounded better. Executing smooth crescendos and diminuendos where one customarily hears percussive blasts, the Chorale--expertly prepared by Kathy Saltzman Romey--wove an "Ode" of impeccable beauty and power."
--Rob Hubbard
 
Minneapolis StarTribune
Friday, December 9, 2005:
"English conductor Paul Goodwin offered … a solid, communicative account [of Handel's Messiah] that benefited from the excellent singing of the Minnesota Chorale and four accomplished sololists. … The chorus, prepared by Kathy Saltzman Romey, had many impressive moments, from the light transparency of And he shall purify to the weighty drama of Surely, He hath borne our griefs."
--Michael Anthony
 
St. Paul Pioneer Press
Thursday, December 8, 2005:
"A tradition that gets better by the year: "…[W]hen one thinks of Messiah, it's the voices that pop to mind. And not only did the Minnesota Chorale deftly evoke the work's emotional extremes, it did so with purposeful passion. "[T]he Minnesota Orchestra's annual performances of the work seem only to improve with age… and never in recent memory have the orchestra and Minnesota Chorale shown themselves to have such a clear handle on Handel."
--Rob Hubbard
 
Minneapolis StarTribune
Friday, October 28, 2005:
"…Andrew Litton and the musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra, along with a stageful of fine singers, got close to what Mahler put down on paper in their performance of the Symphony No. 3 at Orchestra Hall Thursday night. … [A]ll the choral forces onstage -- the women of the Minnesota Chorale and the two children's choruses, the Metropolitan Boys Choir and the Metropolitan Choralaires -- impressively brought the fifth movement to life, projecting warm tone and well-sprung rhythms."
--Michael Anthony
 
Minneapolis StarTribune
Friday, October 14, 2005:
"This was 'Daphnis and Chloe' writ large in widescreen 3D, vivid and colorful. Any notions that this was a ballet were left behind. [Conductor Yan Pascal] Tortelier took it purely as an orchestral showpiece, which, to be sure, is one of the ways to do this piece, and the orchestra gave him a great performance, as did the Minnesota Chorale, which actually managed to give some character, along with bright, forward sound, to its nearly endless succession of 'oohs' and 'ahhs' and occasional 'arghs'."
--Michael Anthony
 
St. Paul Pioneer Press
Friday, October 14, 2005:
"… On Thursday evening, [French conductor Yan Pascal Tortelier] was akin to a solo dancer on the podium, coaxing an excellent performance out of the [Minnesota O]rchestra and the Minnesota Chorale with an athletic style that looked a lot like modern dance and a charisma, confidence and magnetism that particularly suited the Ravel.
       "Tortelier's grand gestures proved ideal for the evening's main attraction, the complete music from Ravel's ballet, 'Daphnis and Chloe.' … [I]t was delivered with a large dollop of theatricality Thursday, with mood-altering lighting, musicians moving offstage and on, and a chorus that often leapt to its feet in flamboyant fashion."
--Rob Hubbard