During the bewildering and urgent first days of the COVID-19 shutdowns, new-music choir The Crossing began posting archival live recordings every morning on their website. Perhaps no other choir was so well-equipped to address the moment, with its vaunted technical proficiency, musical flexibility, and vast fund of recordings earnestly probing contemporary human questions.  The selection of these recordings offered here show a particular interest in works that dwell in the liminal space where despair becomes expectation and vice versa (see Paul Fowler’s “First Pink,” Joby Talbot’s “Lost Forever”). Wonderfully-paced and diverse, with a handful of stunners.

– Sean Wood