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Memorable and impressive moments - but no big sweep to these stations
Hyperion's earlier disc of Lukaszewski's music (A/08) left me feeling that the Polish composer's idiom was short-breathed, although highly effective at conjuring up specific atmospheric moments. This second disc, whose theme is the Stations of the Cross (15 rather than 14 in Lukaszewski's version), does not radically alter my...
This is a near-hour-long oratorio for three soloists, chorus and orchestra, and a narrator speaking in Latin, by the contemporary Polish composer Pawel Lukaszewski, who is now 40. Stephen Layton has previously recorded a selection of his shorter sacred Latin motets (reviewed in September 2008), but Via Crucis is infinitely more ambitious, a through-composed setting of biblical texts all related...
Handel was fundamentally a theatrical composer, in the sense that no matter what the genre, his guiding principle seems to have been that the ultimate purpose of music is to entertain, to keep the audience in--if not on the edge of--their seats, and to keep them coming back for more. Even his sacred works have the power to profoundly affect listeners of all kinds--how else do you explain, say,...
In good voice after 800 years
Garry Humphreys samples a festival of Cambridge choirs
AS CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY celebrates the 800th anniversary of its foundation, it is no surprise, in a city famous for its choirs, that a week should be devoted to demonstrating not only the current prowess of its resident singers and players of the past and present, but also the composers who flourished there, as...
Korsvejen på nye toner
De 15 stationer på Jesu korsvej er børnelærdom for de fleste, men det er især via den katolske kirke, at man møder dem sat i musik. Det er da også en ung polsk katolik, der har skrevet det seneste storværk om vejen, fra Jesus dømmes til døden, til han står op af graven påskemorgen.
Lukaszewski, der er født i 1968, har skrevet et særdeles umiddelbart værk i et...
This devotional piece, which makes a noble addition to the music of Passiontide, could be seen as a reflection on Pawel Lukaszewski's native Poland and Catholicism's triumph over communism. Whatever its genesis, there is no denying the beauty of the choral writing and the sincerity of faith which lies behind it. Built around the Stations of the Cross, jewel-like recurring refrains, exquisitely...