Signed copies of our October release COLCD 141. Choral settings of Shakespeare, Wordsworth, James Weldon Johnson, Charles Causley and others, by John Rutter

Another classic from the John Rutter and the Cambridge Singers, whose recordings have become a tradition of Christmas around the world.

REVIEW:

Christmas Star is an entertaining collection of familiar holiday tunes and carols, all professionally performed by the Cambridge Singers. This is good, straight a cappella holiday mus­ic and should satisfy fans of that style[.]

­– All Music Guide (Stephen Thomas Erlewine)

World Premiere Recording. Cappella Records proudly announces the release of Ukrainian War Requiem by multiple Grammy®-nominated composer Benedict Sheehan, performed by Axios Men's Ensemble and the tenors and basses of Pro Coro Canada, Edmonton, Canada, directed by Michael Zaugg. The recording was released at the three-year anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine (24 February 2022). Benedict Sheehan's Ukrainian War Requiem is a powerful tribute to Ukraine's enduring spirit, honoring lives lost in war through music. Rooted in the tradition of the panakhyda (a memorial service for the dead), it blends ancient Ukrainian prayers, Latin texts, and Jewish melodies, symbolizing Ukraine's complex past, present, and future. Performed by the Axios Men's Ensemble and the tenors and basses of Pro Coro Canada under Michael Zaugg, this work commemorates the ultimate sacrifice for freedom, democracy, and faith. The Ukrainian War Requiem stands as a vigil for the fallen and a celebration of Ukraine's resilient heritage.

American Record Guide (11-12/97, p.194) - "...Among the soloists, tenor Paul Agnew and soprano Anna Crookes are excellent in every way....Summerly has a wonderful feel for Schütz, his Oxford group is very fine, and the music is wonderful."

From the first few seconds of this new recording from Brian Jones and his Trinity Choir, you know it's Christmas. The flute and bell sounds, the dancing rhythm from the organ, the prodigiously joyful voices, and the catchy, unmistakably Rutter-esque melody combine to set off the sparks that promise a bright, happy, thoughtfully and lovingly compiled program. I say "lovingly" because this is the type of programming that, as usual with Jones, is not made with the "snooty" or "snobbish" in mind, but comes purely from the heart and from the experience of a director who knows and cares about the real listening tastes of his audience. (You've got to admire anyone who convincingly and with conviction programs "The Holy City" alongside works by Britten and Vaughan Williams, as he did on an earlier recording for Gothic Records.) And, as reflected here, those tastes, especially in Christmas music, cover a fairly wide range--from Rutter (three pieces) to Poulenc (O magnum mysterium) to Luboff (his well-loved arrangement of the Austrian carol Still, still, still).


The opening tune indeed is by John Rutter, a setting of the 15th-century text "Sing we to this merry company", and it's quickly followed by the Luboff arrangement, Gerald Near's setting of Ding! dong! merrily on high, and the well-known Pearsall version of In dulci jubilo. The combination of familiarity and audience-favorite continues throughout the rest of the 21 selections, with classics such as Rutter's all-time most-popular What sweeter music, Elizabeth Poston's Jesus Christ the apple tree, and Poulenc's motet O magnum mysterium. But mixed in among these revered gems are many less well-known pieces, including a snazzy, bluesy Noël nouvelet arranged by Stephen Jackson, Michael Head's charming and lovely The little road to Bethlehem, and of course a Charles Wood arrangement, Once as I remember (Wood is a Jones favorite).


The choir, one of North America's treasures, always is a treat to hear, displaying not only an enormous stylistic command but also uncommon technical range and interpretive sensitivity. I've said this before, but it's still true: The soprano section would be the envy of any choir. However, the entire ensemble manages a consistent cohesiveness and sonic refinement that's rare among amateur choirs in any part of the world. Even in small details, the choir shows extraordinary care and attention--for instance, in the perfectly rendered endings to the simple but so-often-troublesome "Gloria" line in Ding! dong! merrily on high. And for sheer strength and unity of sound, listen to the choir's rendition of Holst's On this day earth shall ring. Other highlights include Bob Chilcott's Mid-winter, a setting of the Christina Rossetti text "In the bleak mid-winter" that's become an instant favorite all over the world. Jones himself contributes a very effective arrangement of O little town of Bethlehem that joins the two "competing" tunes St. Louis and Forest Green. Although I would prefer a warmer, softer-edged sound in the Poulenc to really capture the "mysterium" in the work, and slightly better-tuned tenors in some places (What sweeter music, for example), this is a first rate recording that will satisfy all listeners looking for an ideal all-around Christmas choral collection. The sound, made in Boston's Trinity Church, captures the detail of choir, organ, and occasional percussion while faithfully capturing the fullness and resonance of the church's magnificent space.
--David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com

A new choral album of radiant melody and profound reflection Composer James Woodhall presents Full of Grace, a deeply expressive new choral album that moves between the intimate and the exultant. Drawing inspiration from sacred texts, ancient prayers, and moments of divine revelation, this collection weaves together contemporary choral writing with timeless spiritual themes. The album opens with the title track, Full of Grace, a lyrical meditation on the Angel Gabriel's greeting to Mary and the incarnation. With warm harmonies and a memorable, flowing melody, the piece captures both the stillness and the awe of that encounter, while it's vibrant central section echoes the heavenly proclamation to the shepherds. At the heart of the album lies The Damascus Sequence - an 11-movement cantata chronicling Saul's dramatic conversion from persecutor to preacher, drawn closely from Acts 9. This narrative arc, from darkness to vision, turmoil to peace, is vividly painted in choral textures, duets, and solos. Tracks such as Murderous Threats, I am Jesus, and Saul Sees and is Saved reflect Woodhall's gift for text-setting and storytelling through music, bringing ancient scripture to life with a keen sense of pacing and atmosphere. Later in the album, Woodhall returns to the Nativity in The Shepherds' Carol, a haunting and intimate new text that juxtaposes pastoral imagery with celestial wonder. His setting of Ave Verum Corpus and Ave Maria offers fresh interpretations of these enduring texts, while the final track, Light from Light, closes the album with a vision of hope and illumination - a reflection on divine presence in the world. Rooted in the choral tradition yet unmistakably contemporary, Full of Grace is a compelling addition to the sacred repertoire. It's accessible yet distinctive language will resonate with listeners who appreciate the choral music of James MacMillan, John Tavener, and Morten Lauridsen. For broadcasters, curators, and critics, Full of Grace offers music that is both spiritually resonant and musically rewarding - ideal for sacred seasons, reflective programming, and those seeking new choral music that speaks with clarity and depth.

'Another red-letter entry in the Collegium/Cambridge Singers canon' - Choral Review

Classical Music

Those who lament the austere, dispassionate, "scholarly" approach that more often than not informs today's original-instrument performances of Bach cantatas will find much to rejoice in Masaaki Suzuki's grand and heartfelt, if not overly devotional conceptions. For instance, as you listen to the opening Sinfonia of Christ lag in Todesbanden you're immediately struck by the emotive delicacy of the string playing and how perfectly it introduces the subject's necessary resolve and sadness. Moments later when the chorus enters and the momentum shifts, the urgency of the ensemble likewise changes to deftly communicate just the right measure of boldness and hope. Throughout the piece Suzuki's uncanny ability to extract every nuance from Bach's sublime score recalls the efforts of Karl Richter, Günther Ramin, Fritz Werner, Karl Ristenpart, and Helmut Winschermann--bygone patricians of this repertoire who were equally considerate of the music's every emotion, from deepest angst to overwhelming joy. Though BWV 4 is one of Bach's most famous and oft-recorded cantatas, Suzuki's rendering of it ranks with the very best.

The two other cantatas offered--Nacht dir, Herr, verlanget mich BWV 150 and Der Herr denket an uns BWV 196--also receive outstanding performances. In BWV 150, soprano Yumiko Kurisu's seamless and spirited rendering of the aria "Doch bin und bleibe ich vergnügt" is a marvel, as is the fifth-movement trio "Zedern müssen von den Winden", expertly performed by countertenor Akira Tachikawa, tenor Koki Katano, and veteran Dutch bass Peter Kooy. Also noteworthy is Suzuki's brilliant negotiation of the complex rhythms of the chorale "Meine Augen sehen stets zu dem herren", imparting a rarely heard uplifting quality to the setting. BWV 196 is highlighted by the final chorale "Ihr seid die Gesegneten", where Suzuki's sensibly dignified conclusion impresses more favorably than the overly exuberant let's-get-it-over-with treatment Konrad Junghänel and the Cantus Cölln offer in their fairly recent Harmonia Mundi recording (type Q1384 in Search Reviews).

BIS's sound is of audiophile quality, with an expansive yet detailed sound stage that spectacularly complements Suzuki's grand realization. As Volume 1 in a complete traversal of Bach's sacred and secular cantatas, this auspicious entry offers the promise of an extraordinary and very important cycle that shouldn't be missed by anyone who loves these works. This is the kind of Bach rarely heard anymore--performances that make you want to devote time to them, to listen at lifelike levels and follow the text religiously.
-- ClassicsToday.com

Classical Music

BRITTEN: A Ceremony of Carols / Friday Afternoons

"The opening and closing choruses of the Ascension oratiorio contain some of Bach’s most irresistible, catchy music, and this chorus and orchestra really give it their all, from the brilliant trumpets and insistent syncopated rhythms to the invigorating choral singing...once you get into this Bethlehem Bach Choir production, it’s impossible not to like it."

-- David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com

RYBA: Czech Christmas Mass / Missa Pastoralis

John Tavener studied at the Royal Academy of Music with Sir Lennox Berkeley and David Lumsdaine. In 1968 his dramatic cantata The Whale took it's audience by storm and led to his music being recorded on The Beatles' Apple label. Since that time Tavener has continued to show an originality of concept and an intensely personal idiom, making his a voice quite separate from those of his contemporaries. Over the years, the contemplative side of his nature has led him in more spiritual directions and his commitment to the Russian Orthodox Church, which he joined in 1977, is now evident in all his work. In an interview published in his recent book The Music of Silence, Sir John Tavener wrote. "If you listen to the music of the East, somehow the divine is already there. It is - which is a parallel with the eternal 'I am."' What this means in practical terms is that Tavener, in aiming at writing music suitable to convey the theology and the spirituality of the Orthodox Church, to participate in some way in that "eternal 'I am"', creates music of what one might call "dynamic stasis". In other words, the long phrases of eastern chant (of various traditions), the harmonic transparency and the stillness of his work runs counter to what the composer sees as the more "active" spirit of western sacred music; nevertheless, Tavener's western background inevitably and naturally plays it's part, and the unique sound of the fusion of these two is characteristic of all of the works on this disc.

This collection draws together many of the much-loved and most-requested shorter choral works by John Rutter. Gathered from across the Collegium catalogue, 'Be Thou My Vision' includes all of the church anthems and other sacred pieces for which Rutter is justly famous, representing for the first time a handy compendium of the best-loved Rutter works in their definitive performances by the Cambridge Singers, directed by the composer. 'The recordings of Rutter conducting his own music with the Cambridge Singers remain gleaming beacons of irrepressible music-making.' - BBC Music Magazine

Gorgeous and poignant music, performed with wholehearted fervor by an excellent choir.

This will turn out to be, I am sure, one of my favorite recordings of 2012. I first came upon Jonathan Dove’s music on a Hyperion recording of his sacred music, featuring the Wells Cathedral Choir, conducted by Matthew Owens (2010). Over the last year I have occasionally returned to that CD, each time coming away more impressed by Dove’s writing. This new CD has only confirmed and strengthened that impression.

The recording opens with The Passing of the Year, a song-cycle written for double chorus and piano, dedicated in memory of Dove’s mother. The work, which is made up of seven movements divided into three main sections, takes the listener literally and metaphorically through changing seasons. Thankfully, Naxos does not follow its increasingly common practice of making the listener go to its website to search out the texts though they can be found here. Listening with the poetry at hand only increased my admiration for Dove’s sensitive text setting.

The work opens with Invocation, the voices repeatedly singing “O Earth, return!” with an ever increasing intensity. This leads into an extended setting of William Blake’s The narrow bud opens her beauties to the sun, that features contrasting textures of soloist versus choir and high versus low voice to convey the idea of “Summer breaking forth.” The third movement sets Emily Dickinson’s Answer July as a call and response between female and male voices that perfectly captures the playfulness of the text. Movement 4 begins the second section begins with Hot Sun, cool fire, a setting of words by George Peele that uses slowly shifting dissonant chords to evoke how difficult it can be to breathe, let alone move, on a brutally hot summer day. The cycle’s emotional climax is found in Movement 6, a setting of Thomas Nashe’s Adieu! Farewell earth’s bliss. Over an ostinato that bares a passing resemblance to the final minutes of Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms, one of the choirs intones “Lord, have mercy on us,” as the other choir sings, in achingly beautiful harmonies, about the inevitability of death.

Three times these competing choral textures break off so that all voices can join together in singing “I am sick, I must die”. Even after listening several times, Dove’s setting leaves me shaken. The sadness of that movement is effectively dispelled by the final Ring out, wild bells, a passage from Alfred Lord Tennyson’s In Memoriam that speaks of the promises found in the beginning of a New Year.

The rest of the program is just as impressive as the Song Cycle, and displays a greater variety of musical styles, including a solo for mezzo-soprano (My love is mine), three songs for upper voice/women’s choir (It sounded as if the streets were running). The CD is rounded out with Advent and Christmas music, including The Three Kings, written for Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at King’s College, Cambridge.

Dove’s music is impressive, with attractive melodies and tonal harmonic writing. Nevertheless, he is not afraid to use dissonance when it more strongly projects and expresses the text, and his writing displays a particularly strong skill in creating onomatopoeic effects. When I began my listening, I thought it would be helpful to note where Dove’s writing seemed reminiscent of other composers’ work. Sometimes the piano writing, which often uses ostinato figures, reminds me of the minimalists Steven Reich and John Adams. A few of Dove’s melodies soar in a way that recalls Samuel Barber. Answer July brings thoughts of Benjamin Britten’s “Ballad of the Green Broom” from Five Flower Songs. I share these comments not to suggest that Dove is in any way a derivative composer, but rather to express how highly I rate his work. Dove is very much his own man, with masterly word setting that reminds me most strongly of Benjamin Britten and, on this side of the Atlantic, Libby Larsen.

Dove receives the strongest advocacy from his performers. The Convivium Singers, under the assured direction of Neil Ferris, display admirable control of the long line and excellent intonation. I find the balance to be a bit dominated by the women’s voices, and would not have minded a few more men in each section. But the balance never detracted from my immense enjoyment of this recording. Accompanist Christopher Cromar’s playing is splendid, self-effacing virtuosity that serves the choir and the music.

I urge you to purchase this CD as quickly as possible. It is gorgeous and poignant music, performed with wholehearted fervor by an excellent choir, all at budget price.

– David A. McConnell, MusicWeb International

Rozhdestvensky was the first Russian conductor to perform and record all Mahler's symphonies in his country. Das klagende Lied is performed here live. The ICA version has been remastered, restoring the wide dynamics of Rozhdestvensky's magnificent performance. Janacek's the Fiddler's Child, from the 1979 Prague Festival, has never been issued before and is Rozdestvensky's only taping of the work.

A double album of new works to confirm Chilcott’s status as one of the most popular choral composers of today. The Angry Planet ('An Environmental Cantata' commissioned for the BBC Proms in 2012) sees the precision and skill of the BBC Singers and The Bach Choir conflated with the exuberance of a veritable army of young singers.

A MusicWeb International Recording of the Month

The Schola cantorum is a chamber choir – on this evidence an elite chamber choir - founded in 1996 by Hörður Áskelsson, who is a leading figure in Icelandic choral music. It numbers 19 singers (5/4/5/5). The program selected for this disc reflects the memorial music that is customarily sung in Iceland on the first Sunday in November; in Iceland the feasts of All Saints and All Souls have become merged and are celebrated jointly on that day.

As befits the nature of the program, there are no less than three settings, all in Latin, of the Nunc dimittis. The best-known is the setting by Arvo Pärt. His music always requires exemplary control on the part of the singers and that’s much in evidence here. There’s no hiding place in Pärt’s spare texture but the singers of Schola cantorum display great precision – a precision, I might add, that’s entirely at the service of the music and not just attained for its own sake. The other two settings of the canticle are fully worthy to stand besides Pärt’s celebrated version. Both are by members of the Schola – by coincidence both are members of its bass section. The music of Sigurður Sævarsson’s setting has a fragile beauty. The setting is very restrained, even eschewing the almost traditional climax at the words ‘lumen ad revelationem gentium’. The setting by Sævarsson’s colleague, Hreiðar Ingi is rather darker-hued, at least initially, though the music becomes louder and more radiant at ‘lumen ad revelationem gentium’. In the doxology the voices constantly overlap, creating an impression of urgency though it may be – I haven’t seen a score – that the pulse remains unchanged.

There are two settings of the poem Hvíld (Repose) by the Icelandic poet, Snorri Hjartarson (1906-86). One is by the Schola’s conductor, Hörður Áskelsson. His is an intriguing piece, containing probably the most harmonically adventurous music on the program. Earlier the choir sings another response to the same text, this time by Hugi Guðmundsson. This rapt composition is simple, sincere and disarmingly lovely.

Jón Leifs' Requiem is one of four works written in response to the tragically early death of his daughter in 1947 – she drowned at the age of just 17. Leifs’ Requiem is patently sincere – one would expect nothing less in the circumstances – and in this piece he bears his evident grief with dignity. On the surface the music seems simple but harmonically it’s sophisticated. I admired this piece very much.

There are two examples of the music of Þorkell Sigurbjörnsson. Nú hverfur sól í haf (The sun is sinking now) is a hymn – Sigurbjörnsson was closely involved in the music of the Church of Iceland. The tune is most attractive and it’s beautifully harmonised by Sigurbjörnsson. Heyr himna smiður (Hear, Heaven’s creator) is another hymn-like piece. In his invaluable notes Halldór Hauksson describes the piece as ‘exquisite and timeless’; I can understand why. I must not neglect to mention Anna Þorvaldsdóttir’s Heyr þú oss himnum á (Hear us in the heavens). The piece is based on an old Icelandic tune; it’s slow and prayerful.

The remainder of the program is devoted to composers and music that will be much more familiar to the general listener. I must confess that when I first played MacMillan’s A Child’s Prayer I thought the sound a bit too ‘present’, especially the quiet murmurs of the word “welcome” by the choir. However, I think that’s a function of the piece being placed first on the disc. When I went back to it my ears had adjusted and I was untroubled. In any event, it’s an extremely fine performance. Tavener’s The Lamb receives a marvellously accomplished performance, the chording precise and the dynamics expertly calibrated. Speaking of dynamics, the notes contain a quote from Eric Whitacre in which he says of his Lux aurumque ‘if the tight harmonies are carefully tuned and balanced they will shimmer and glow’. That’s just what happens here.

For me the standout performance on this superb disc is the Schola’s account of Eriks Ešenvalds’ wonderful, radiant composition O salutaris hostia. The present, luminous performance is as good as any I’ve heard, with two fabulous soprano soloists caroling above the rest of the choir.

This is truly an outstanding disc. The choir is superb. Their tuning, balance and blend is flawless and the sound that they make gives great pleasure. Yet while the singing may be expert there’s no sense of studied perfection; these expert singers and their conductor produce performances of genuine feeling that draw the listener in. In short, this is one of the most accomplished choral discs that I’ve heard in a long time. I loved their program in which familiar and unfamiliar music is blended in an ideal proportion.

The production values are up to the usual very high BIS standards. Halldór Hauksson’s notes are excellent, not least in introducing us to the Icelandic pieces, which will be unfamiliar to most people. I’ve drawn on his notes in writing of the Icelandic music. The recording itself is immaculate. The choir is presented in a clear, natural and present sound that shows off their singing to best advantage.

On all counts this disc is a winner.

– MusicWeb International (John Quinn)

Awarded a Golden Tuning Fork by Diapason Magazine!

Valentin Silvestrov is probably the best-known Ukrainian composer, and his Requiem for Larissa, now released on album by BR-KLASSIK, was written in response to the unexpected death in 1996 of his wife, the music and literature scholar Larissa Bondarenko. She had stood by his side from the very beginning of his artistic career. It was in 1999, shortly before the turn of the millennium, that Silvestrov was finally able to complete his Requiem.

He did not set a drama of the Last Judgement to music, as Mozart, Berlioz or Verdi had done before him, but rather wrote a lament - in seemingly endless, world-forlorn repetitions. The composer stepped out of the present and into the past, commenting on his life with Larissa with memories of music that had inspired her, and with profound allusions, retrospections and epilogues of the most personal nature. Silvestrov set the words of the Latin mass for the dead to music, yet he did not compose a mass in the sense of a liturgically close or ecclesiastically compatible piece of music. In his seven-movement requiem, the theological order of the Catholic requiem mass is irrevocably dissolved. As if religious gravity had been suspended, isolated words drift about freely and forlornly. The work begins and ends with "Requiem aeternam". At the end, only the wind rushes out of the synthesiser – and, at the very end, an echo of the wind.

REVIEWS:

Perhaps there’s never been a more apposite time for a Ukrainian Requiem. Composed in 1999, the piece is as deeply personal as it gets, being a response by the composer to the death of his wife, three years earlier. As such, it would be improper to seek to reappopriate the work as some kind of surrogate ‘Requiem for Ukraine’. Yet it’s difficult if not impossible, amid the ongoing violence to which Ukraine pointlessly continues to suffer, to listen to any Ukrainian music, particularly music expressing mourning, without some simultaneous reflection on a wider sense of loss.

The work is a refreshingly unusual take on what has become a bit of a hackneyed, even rather vainglorious concept. Silvestrov’s Requiem sidesteps the usual drama and pseudo-spiritual histrionics, for the most part showing disinterest to the familiar Latin text.

Of course, such a mindset stems from a vast, inconsolable mix of emotions, and signs of this manifest in the following Tuba mirum, where the pent-up tension turns volatile, causing turbulence. The words continue in a semi-disoriented stream, articulating an angry Kyrie not so much directed at a deity as hurled in its face. We soon become aware that, though the music is so tragically entrenched, we’re nonethless progressing through the conventional Latin text at surprising speed: less than halfway through this second section we’ve already heard Requiem aeternam, Kyrie, Dies irae, Tuba mirum, Rex tremendae, Recordare and Lacrimosa, each one reduced to a truncated utterance petering out in ellipsis.

...the subsequent Lacrimosa – how heard in its entirety – is a soft-edged return to reality, but again its language is pained, the solo soprano progressing one phrase at a time. There’s the distinct impression of an attenuated music, physicality hobbled, pulse fibrillated, coagulating into rising choral clusters as the bass sags and drags downward. We’ve moved into another form of stasis, cycling round and round, rising and falling. Again that paradoxical duality of infinity and the infinitesimal: of being locked into a single “day … of weeping”, stretching on forever.

The central movement, ‘Prochai svite, prochai zemle’ (Goodbye, o world, o earth, farewell), setting words by renowned Ukraininan poet Taras Shevchenko, both sits outside this traumatised immobility and also serves as another instance of imaginary escape from reality. Its blend of folksong- and chant-like melodic writing sounds dream-like, but is again articulated one phrase at a time, evidently still as pained and doom-laden as everything that preceded it, and its closing moments are an ominous indication that we are in precisely the same place as we were before.

The remainder of Requiem für Larissa, its final three movements, reinforce the same all-pervading stasis of grief. The Agnus Dei offers illusory evocations of Mozart that, drifting and drenched in reverb, sound even more hauntological than that glimpse of a memory in the Lacrimosa.

We’re back in darkness, and the final two sections fixate, again elliptically, on the Requiem aeternam text. The work’s conclusion, in keeping with its immobility, presents music heard previously: that radiant memory from the Lacrimosa, as lovely as it is heartbreaking, slowly evaporating, via timpani rolls and lone string phrases, into a blackness without end.

Performed by the Munich Radio Orchestra with the Bavarian Radio Choir, conducted by Andres Mustonen, this is a live recording from June 2011. It’s good that it’s not a studio recording, polished and honed; don’t get me wrong, it’s an absolutely superb performance, but a work like Requiem für Larissa benefits immensely from the vibrancy and tension that permeate the live experience. It’s not the first recording of the work, and i’m sure more recordings will come, but everything about this sounds definitive.

-- 5 Against 4

A remarkable piece, [here] handled with great delicacy and control.

-- Choir & Organ

The composition of the Requiem was a necessity for Silvestrov to come to terms with the unexplained death of his wife Larissa. That is why his work became a lament and not a drama of the Last Day. The endless, world-forlorn repetitions may be heard as a commentary on their life together, peppered with reminiscences, retrospectives and personal epilogues. Meanwhile, one may hear the work of this Ukrainian composer more generally also against the background of the war of Putin and the Russian army against the brother country with connotations of senseless murder.

For a good half century Silvestrov has had an independent style, which he himself calls meta-music and which one might locate close to Western neo-romanticism or post-modernism. The sweeping gestures still show mourning and the time of processing loss rather than reconsideration. The five-part chorus, rounded out with a basso profundo in the low register, and the soloists who come from it, make this mood, which lets nothing but dejection be heard, impressively clear.

In this recording of a concert that took place back in 2011, the orchestra finds more of an underlining role, where accents are also added. In some sections, including those in which a synthesizer is added, natural sounds such as wind, are also imitated, as well as the old, ideal world with Mozart sounds. Andres Mustonen keeps all participants in contact with the necessary freedom with good coordination in such a way that a very dense and impressive music becomes audible, which nevertheless does not let despair arise despite all the pain. The recording, produced by the Bayerischer Rundfunk technical department, together with the informative booklet, therefore offers a high-quality rounding off.

-- Pizzicato

PAX: Gregorian Chants on the Theme of Peace

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