Cathedral Music (UK) critic Bret Johnson wrote in the magazine’s October 2024 issue, “Dan Locklair (b. 1949) has had three previous appearances on Convivium, most recently his very powerful and moving Requiem (CR070).
This latest selection features a number of recent a cappella works and further cements his reputation as a choral composer on both sides of the Atlantic.
The title work, which opens the disc, is a joyful Christmas celebration with brass, percussion and organ, rather in Flor Peeters’s image. Three Christmas Motets, especially the rapt O magnum mysterium are worthy additions to the catalogue, as is Dona nobis pacem. The triumphal mood returns with the eloquent anthem The Lord is My Light, notable for its splendid organ part. I especially liked the medieval flavour of The Texture of Creation with brass, percussion and organ.
Locklair writes very effectively for this combination and the triumphal pieces really stand out on the album. He has very persuasive advocates in the Royal Holloway choir, whose committed singing gives added punch, and this alone is sufficient to merit a recommendation.
There are excellent sleeve notes and full texts of all the pieces, and the recording, made in two different Churches, is of very high quality. “
Critic John Speller, in The Diapason magazine’s November 2024 issue, wrote about Dan’s From East to West CD release from Convivium Records, “Many of Locklair’s compositions on this compact disk are choral settings of familiar English and Latin hymns…” several of which he cites for the prevalence of a “greater feeling of peace and calm” and another for “a feeling of disquiet, suggesting that one cannot always take peace and tranquility for granted.” He calls other pieces “fresh and interesting” and “beautifully crafted.” He ends his review with, “This compact disk is an excellent introduction to the choral works of Dan Locklair. I wholeheartedly recommend it to readers of The Diapason.”