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Hyperion continues to astound by coming up with unknown and eminently-listenable music from various parts of the world. On this disc the wonderful Stephen Layton presents us with music from Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Anyone remotely familiar with these countries is surely aware of the tremendously vibrant and prolific nature of choral singing in those locales. Recent years have shown a spate...
Körsång när den är som allra bäst
Veljo tormis är en levande legend med mycket betydelse för estnisk musikliv och körsång, men hans musik är som mycket annat som händer på den sidan östersjön ganska okänd i Sverige, När DR vokalensemblet , den danska radions kammarkör gästade malmö i onsdags fick publiken två exempel på hans breda spektrum och dessutom se honom själv- han var närvarande vid...
The last-minute withdrawal of the tenor Evangelist from a performance of Bach's St John Passion would normally leave a hole in the starting lineup of Rooneyesque proportions. But the fates were on Stephen Layton's side when John Mark Ainsley lost his voice just hours before the annual Good Friday Smith Square passion, and Ian Bostridge, no less, stepped straight off a flight from New York to take...
Eriks Esenvalds clearly felt like a million dollars at the end of Thursday's performance of his oratorio Passion and Resurrection. This half-hour long, multi-textured vocal, choral and orchestral work made a stunning impression at Trinity College Chapel, and as the 33-year-old Latvian composer acknowledged the prolonged applause he was visibly moved – and no wonder.
The performance was a...
Baltic Exchange is an apt title for a selection of choral works by four Baltic composers sung by a British choir and recorded by a British label. I must straightaway admit that all but one of these composers are completely new to me. As can be seen in the above details, Latvian-born Prauliņš has the lion’s share in this generous cross-section. His large-scale and substantial Missa Rigensis...
David Mellor's Album of the Week
Christmas has come early. Or at least, Bach's Christmas Oratorio has come early as far as David Mellor is concerned.
This week, David unwraps one Christmas present very early - a magnificent new recording of J.S. Bach's Christmas Oratorio by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Trinity College Choir Cambridge under the conductor, Stephen Layton.
It's...