Rias Kammerchor Wolfgang Rihm Astralis & Other Choral Works

This album under the Anthology of Polish Art a Cappella series, created together with the 'Collegium Cantorum' Choir of the Czestochowa Philharmonic under the direction of Janusz Siadlak, is devoted to Andrzej Koszewski's choral music.

Neither Stefan Parkman nor Chandos could be accused of pandering to the masses in their choice of repertoire for this series of recordings by the Danish National Radio Choir. True, Reger's name may be more familiar than, say, Lidholm, Norgard, Pepping or Pizzetti (featured on previous discs), but only to the extent that the mere mention of Reger's a cappella music will send sensitive souls scurrying into the nearest Karaoke lounge. Visions of myriad notes covering the page would frighten most choirs away, but these singers are made of sterner stuff. For them complex contrapuntal structures, devious chromatic harmonies and textures so thick you need a forage knife to get through them, hold no terrors. Rather they not only weave their way through Reger's characteristically tangled scores without a moment's doubt, but illuminate the paths so clearly one hardly notices the dense musical undergrowth all around.

Neither Stefan Parkman nor Chandos could be accused of pandering to the masses in their choice of repertoire for this series of recordings by the Danish National Radio Choir. True, Reger's name may be more familiar than, say, Lidholm, Norgard, Pepping or Pizzetti (featured on previous discs), but only to the extent that the mere mention of Reger's a cappella music will send sensitive souls scurrying into the nearest Karaoke lounge. Visions of myriad notes covering the page would frighten most choirs away, but these singers are made of sterner stuff. For them complex contrapuntal structures, devious chromatic harmonies and textures so thick you need a forage knife to get through them, hold no terrors. Rather they not only weave their way through Reger's characteristically tangled scores without a moment's doubt, but illuminate the paths so clearly one hardly notices the dense musical undergrowth all around.

Alexander Campkin is renowned as a leading young choral composer who has been commissioned by some of the most prestigious musical organisations in Britain. True Light reveals the energy and majestic sound world that he commands, as well as qualities of reflective intimacy. His Missa Brevis was inspired by seeing a beam of sunlight pierce a cloud of moving incense, the resultant music being built around a sustained pitch, ebbing and flowing. In The First Kiss, he sets two poignant and daring Epigrams by the Greek philosopher Strato.

This album features relatively unfamiliar and previously unrecorded music written by contemporary female composers, and Renaissance composers. The repertoir features several texts based on a Marian theme.

When Wolfgang Rihm composed the 'Fragmenta Passionis', in 1968, this 16-year old artist was already a ‘compositional force’ that seemed beyond any doubt in terms of critical consciousness. Two further compositions, the 'Sieben Passions-texte' of 2001-06 and the major half-hour-long work 'Astralis' of 2001, feature on the present recording alongside the early choral work.