…a riveder le stelle – Swedish Choral Music
Swedish Radio Choir/Kaspars Putniņš
rec. 2022/23, St. Matteuskyrkan & Studio 2, Radiohuset, Stockholm
Texts and translations supplied
BIS BIS-2687 SACD [81]

Kaspars Putniņš has been music director of the Swedish Radio Choir since 2020, a post he also holds with the Latvian Radio Choir. He is a lucky man! Beauty of sound, blend, tuning, breath control, agility and command of dynamics combine to treat us to awe-inspiring singing here. The choir is made up of 33 or so singers, all of whom are named in the booklet, as are those who have short solo roles. The booklet also carries an excellent listening guide by Anna Hedelius, and the programme is presented in BIS-quality sound.

This review could almost end there, but the repertoire is unusual and merits more information. Nothing is presented as a first recording, yet I feel certain that many of the pieces are just that. Certainly, of the ten principal composers named, five were new to me, making this disc a voyage of discovery. Most of the music is slow, and many listeners will prefer to pick and choose their favourites rather than listening each time from beginning to end.

The collection opens with a classic of the modern Swedish choral repertoire, by Ingvar Lidholm, who worked closely throughout his life with the father of Swedish choral singing, Eric Ericson. …a riveder le stelle sets an extract from Dante’s Divine Comedy where Dante and Virgil, after their wanderings through dark and dangerous regions, find their way back to light and are able ‘to rebehold the stars’. The stark opening for the upper voices gives us a taste of the stunningly accurate, vibrato-light singing that will be features of this programme. Having worked with many choirs over the years I can confirm that this piece is horribly difficult, requiring, amongst other skills, the ability to pitch notes from nowhere, with little or no help from the other voices, after a few bars’ pause. Much of the music is chromatic and highly dissonant, but every note is chosen as a direct response to the text. A stunning example of this is where, like Haydn in The Creation, on the word ‘light’, Lidholm evokes the stars with a richly scored chord of C major. A wordless passage then winds the work down towards the close.

Hillborg’s The Breathing of the World features two non-vocal soloists, Theo Hillborg, the composer’s son, who plays the soprano saxophone, and cellist Filip Graden, the son of Gary Graden, Director of Music at St Jacob’s Cathedral in Stockholm, who suggested to Hillborg that he compose the work. Hillborg wrote the text, in English, to evoke aspects of the natural world – ‘the wind that whispers’, ‘the blazing rays of light’, ‘the ocean song’ and, of course, ‘the breathing of the world’. This is a deeply reflective work, the choral writing richly sonorous and using a few effects that the unversed listener will wonder how they are achieved as well as how they are noted on the page. The instrumental soloists do have their moments of glory, especially at the end of the work, but are for the most part skilfully integrated into the overall texture. This is serious music that addresses a serious theme, full of hope at its close. It is also, perhaps most importantly, ravishingly beautiful.

Lars Edlund’s Gloria brings total and rather shocking contrast, and is a rather tougher nut to crack. Edlund is the composer of a number of hymns which, assuming they are for congregational use, will hopefully be more easily mastered than this very challenging piece. A forceful solo tenor intones the opening words, followed by a setting of the familiar Gloria text that involves much speaking and extended vocal techniques. The words ‘Adoramus te’ receive lengthy treatment, and the following ‘Glorificamus te’ is appropriately assertive and positive. The choir comes together in unity for the closing Quoniam (For you alone art holy’).

Lars Johan Werle set Petrarch’s lyric celebrating the purity of love that never dies. Two techniques are employed. Where the poet’s love for Laura is evoked the music is diatonic, and the  avoidance of counterpoint allows the words to emerge clearly. Where thoughts of death appear the composer employs more advanced techniques, including greater chromaticism, slides and speaking. Close attention to the words of this 12-minute work will repay the effort required. Luckily they are provided, both in Italian and in English translation.

Wider knowledge of Per Nørgård’s music than I possess would be needed to appreciate how Britta Byström makes use of elements of his style in To måner (Two Moons), which she composed for the senior composer’s 90th birthday. The words, by Poul Borum, are slim, and the music, unusually in this recital, has a constant pulse. Its nature puts me in mind of the choral music of Estonian composers such as Veljo Tormis. It is a superb short work that will open the eyes (and ears) of many who are new to modern choral music, and it is sung here with a kind of apparently casual virtuosity that is moving in itself.

Anna Hedelius tells us that Tom Hirons’s poem Songs for an Impossible Future speaks of ‘a dogged determination to turn despair into hope’. Johannes Pollak’s setting was composed for the Swedish Radio Choir: its homophonic, word-for-word style rather precludes any possibility of melodic content, throwing the listener back onto the harmonies. I found this work less immediately appealing than most of the programme, but can confirm that with repeated hearings one begins to appreciate what the composer and the poet are driving at.

Six pieces remain, all of them short. Arne Lundmark’s I know a rose so beauteous is a beautiful, simple arrangement of a Swedish folk song, whereas Steffan Storm’s well-named Evening Reflections is a wordless treatment of themes by Hugo Alfvén, a composer of considerable importance for Swedish choral singing as well as the preservation of Swedish traditional music. Johansson is made up of 16 folk melodies collected and arranged by Alfvén and given whirlwind treatment by Ulrika Emanuelsson. The occasional slide, unusual textures and wordless accompaniment figures bring a touch of individuality to the herding song, Limu limu lima , and also to the confusing mixture of traditional, original and arranged music that is Shine over lake and shore. The programme ends with Praetorius’s Es is ein Ros’ entsprungen, familiar from so many Christmas concerts, and sung here in Jan Sandström’s miraculous rethinking that is far too radical a treatment to be called an arrangement. The hymn, sung very slowly, is enveloped in a kind of sound-halo, and with one unexpected and exquisite moment of silence, this masterpiece brings the recital to a glowing, deeply satisfying close.

William Hedley

Contents
Ingvar Lidholm (1921-2017)
…a riveder le stelle (1973)
Anders Hillborg (b. 1954)
The Breathing of the World (2019)
Lars Edlund (1922-2013)
Gloria (1969)
Lars Johan Werle (1926-2001)
Canzone 126 di Francesco Petrarca (1967)
Britta Byström (b. 1977)
To måner (2022)
Johannes Pollak (b. 1993)
Songs for an Impossible Future (2023)
Traditional arr. Arne Lundmark
Jag vet en dejlig rosa (2021)
Staffan Storm (b. 1964)
Evening Reflections (2022)
Hugo Alfvén (1872-1960)
Johansson (arr. Ulrika Emanuelssohn) (2022)
Traditional arr. Anna-Karin Klockar (b. 1960)
Limu limu lima (2022)
Ivar Widéen (1871-1951)
Gläns över sjö och strand (arr. Ørjan Matre) (1916 arr. 2022)
Jan Sandström (b. 1954)
Det är en ros utsprungen (1990)

Buying this recording via the link below generates revenue for MWI, which helps the site remain free