Composer Henry Dehlinger has written works in various genres, but he has performed as an accompanist and seems to have an instinct for showcasing singers in their best light. His songs and choral works have proven popular among student and amateur groups, and young singers might well check out At That Hour to become acquainted with his work. Dehlinger has created something of an American counterpart to popular British crossover styles. His musical language is resolutely tonal, but an elegant integration of jazz influences (as a pianist, Dehlinger has recorded the music of Duke Ellington) keeps it from being an exercise in nostalgia. Dehlinger's language sometimes seems inadequate to capture the edge of the texts in the Ten Poems of James Joyce, but his varied taste in texts, akin to that of John Rutter, is a draw here, with Edgar Allan Poe, Dante, Oscar Wilde, and the Song of Songs among his sources. Dehlinger couldn't ask for better interpreters than he receives on this recording. Soprano Danielle Talamantes has a silvery voice that would sound great in the songs of Poulenc, who perhaps was an inspiration for Dehlinger, and bass-baritone Kerry Wilkerson has a pleasant tone that's right in line with the effects Dehlinger constructs. With Avie contributing an ideally warm sound, this is a good place to start for those who have heard about this composer but have not encountered his actual music.
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