Composer: Paweł Łukaszewski
Performer: The Choir of Trinity College Cambridge
Conductor: Stephen Layton
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Hyperion
Catalogue: CDA67639
Release: 2008
Size: 248 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Beatus vir
01. V. Beatus vir, Sanctus Paulus
02. VI. Beatus vir, Sanctus Antonius
03. I. Beatus vir, Sanctus Martinus
Two Lenten Motets
04. I. Memento mei, Domine
05. II. Crucem tuam adoramus, Domine
06. Ave Maria
O Antiphons
07. I. O Sapientia
08. II. O Adonai
09. III. O Radix Jesse
10. IV. O Clavis David
11. V. O Oriens
12. VI. O Rex gentium
13. VII. O Emmanuel
14. Psalmus 102
15. Nunc dimittis
This latest disc from Trinity showcases the talent of this marvellous young choir in a disc of seductively beautiful spiritual music from Poland.
Pawel Lukaszewski is the most outstanding of the younger generation of Polish composers specializing in sacred choral music. His ability to encapsulate the expressive essence of a text with immediacy and economy of technical means is unrivalled, as is his facility of idiomatic vocal writing. He has an enormously subtle and varied harmonic palette— unlike some of his contemporaries—and creates an organically new harmonic world for each piece. His extended tonal sound world is enriched by highly selective use of vocal effects such as glissandi, parlando (speaking) and susurrando (whispering), all of which occur invariably in direct response to clear textual stimuli.
A generous selection of Lukaszewski’s considerable output is recorded here, including the sequence of seven Advent Antiphons composed in 1995–9. Lukaszewski’s extended settings cover a vast expressive range: from the dark eightand twelve-part sonorities of O Clavis David to the ecstatic concluding superimposed thirds of O Oriens.
Conductor Stephen Layton is one of Lukaszewski’s most enthusiastic proponents—indeed he is the dedicatee of the most recent work on this disc, the Nunc dimittis from 2007. He communicates this deep understanding of Lukaszewski’s music to his young singers, coaxing from them a committed and potent performance.