CD · 1 disc
SACD · 1 disc
Cappella Amsterdam and its artistic leader Daniel Reuss present their third Pentatone album with a recording of Alfred Schnittke’s Psalms of Repentance. Schnittke composed the piece in 1988 to commemorate the Christianisation of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus in 988, and based it on anonymous Russian texts from the 16th century about guilt and repentance. It is one of the most impressive large-scale works for a cappella choir written in the twentieth century, setting intensely emotional texts to equally expressive music, and approaching centuries-old Orthodox musical traditions through the lens of late twentieth-century music. This recording uses the original manuscript, which differs in multiple ways from the published score, resulting in an interpretation that aims to be closer to the composer’s intentions. Since its foundation in 1970, Cappella Amsterdam has shown an exceptional mastery of contemporary and early vocal music, with acclaimed excurses to Romantic repertoire as well. Daniel Reuss has been Artistic Leader of Cappella Amsterdam for over three decades now, and has worked with several renowned choirs and ensembles. Their PENTATONE debut album In Umbra Mortis (2021) won an Edison Klassiek Award, and was followed by David Lang: the writings in 2022.
Since the 1960s, the Swedish Radio Choir has been recognized as a - not to say the - world-leading a cappella choir. Made up of 33 professional singers, the choir has been engaged by some of today's leading conductors, such as Claudio Abbado, Riccardo Muti and Esa-Pekka Salonen, for concerts, tours and recordings. This success story began in 1952 when the legendary choir conductor Eric Ericson became principal conductor of the choir. When the Estonian conductor Tõnu Kaljuste became the choir's first non-Swedish principal conductor, he introduced the choir to new repertoire in a particularly exciting collaboration. It is the fruits of this we can enjoy on the present disc: three works on sacred themes by Kaljuste's compatriot Arvo Pärt (of which one, Dopo la vittoria, was dedicated to Kaljuste and the Swedish Radio Choir) and Alfred Schnittke's short Voices of Nature and monumental Concerto for Choir. Using texts by the 10th century Armenian mystic Gregory of Narek - in a Russian translation - the 40-minute long Concerto has become a classic in the modern repertoire for choir. In several ways the work invokes the music of the Russian Orthodox Church, and in fact, Schnittke was reluctant to publish the work outside of Russia, as he feared that non-Russian performances would lack religious intensity. But as anyone will know who has listened to the Swedish Radio Choir's previous BIS release (BIS-CD-1048), such fears would be groundless in the circumstances. The choir's interpretation of Bengt Hambræus's Apocalipsis was described as 'breathtakingly exciting' by the critics - and their performance of the music of Schnittke and Pärt will surely make as big an impact. It is with great pride that BIS resumes the collaboration with the Swedish Radio Choir - with a recording of the Requiems by Duruflé and Fauré to look forward to!.
