Mass (2021)

Norwegian composer Kim André Arnesen’s Holy Spirit Mass is released by Decca Classics for Easter, his first full-length recording on the label. Sofi Jeannin conducts the Trondheim Vocal Ensemble and Trondheim Soloists on the recording, out on 2 April.The premiere recording of Kim André Arnesen’s Holy Spirit Mass is released by Decca Classics on Good Friday, 2 April 2021. Arnesen’s works have crossed oceans and continents, with “rapturous” (New York Times) performances for the likes of former President Barack Obama. Already one of the world’s most performed living composers, his scores have become mainstays of both amateur and professional choral repertoire.

Just a few years into his career, Christoph Zimper found himself the solo clarinetist with the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, and in great demand as an orchestra- and chamber musician. In 2018, he decided to leave the orchestral jobs behind and find out how to express existential matters – like an “intensely perceived moment”, for example, “that may look perfectly unremarkable from the outside” – in a musical language of his own.

Mass (formally: MASS: A Theatre Piece for Singers, Players, and Dancers) is a musical theatre work composed by Leonard Bernstein with text by Bernstein and additional text and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz. Commissioned by Jacqueline Kennedy, it premiered on September 8, 1971, conducted by Maurice Peress and choreographed by Alvin Ailey. The production used costume designs by Frank Thompson.

Originally commissioned by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis for the opening of the Kennedy Center, MASS was a unique theatrical experience – a fully-staged dramatic pageant that mixed sacred and secular texts and used various musical forms from classical, jazz, and rock to Hebraic and Broadway. The avant-garde work, while not performed often, has endured since its world premiere with themes still relevant today. Ultimately, it serves, according to the composer in a 1971 program note, as a “reaffirmation of faith.”

Like clockwork, Swedish stoner rockers GREENLEAF spread their concentrated sludgy energy to disciples of the genre by releasing Echoes From A Mass in 2021, the successor to their 2018 epic, Hear The Rivers.

Rising star Kim André Arnesen is already one of the most performed living choral composers in the world. His music is rooted in his home of Trondheim, Norway, but has been performed all over the world, including for former President Barack Obama at The White House, and The Vatican

Singer-songwriter David Crosby's solo debut, If I Could Only Remember My Name, was dismissed by critics when it came out in 1971. Over the years, however, appreciation has grown for the album's adventurous aesthetic, stacked harmonies and haunting lyrics about loss and confusion. Billed as Crosby's solo debut, the album was anything but a one-man project.

Singer-songwriter David Crosby's solo debut, If I Could Only Remember My Name, was dismissed by critics when it came out in 1971. Over the years, however, appreciation has grown for the album's adventurous aesthetic, stacked harmonies and haunting lyrics about loss and confusion. Billed as Crosby's solo debut, the album was anything but a one-man project.

Henri Hardouin (1727–1808) was a chorister in Rheims Cathedral, rising swiftly through the ranks to become maître de chapelle – until the French Revolution disbanded religious establishments. As a priest he was in potential danger and seems to have gone into hiding until, in 1794, the death of Robespierre allowed him to resume his duties.