Music of Morten Lauridsen Performed by Polyphony & Britten Sinfonia
Hyperion Records

TRACKS

Lux Aeterna: Introitus In te, Domine, speravi O nata lux Veni, Sancte Spiritus Agnus Dei, Lux Aeterna

Madrigali: Ove, lass, il bel viso? Quando son piu lontan Amor, io sento l'alma Io piango Luci serene e chiare Se per havervi, oime

Ave Maria Ubi caritas et amor O Magnum Mysterium

This Grammy-nominated disc from the multi-award-winning choir Polyphony is something rather special. At once genuinely original and yet reassuringly accessible, the music of Morten Lauridsen has achieved something of a cult status in his native America (O Magnum Mysterium currently being the top-selling choral octavo in the country- the number 2 spot is also a Lauridsen work), and Stephen Layton draws from his musicians some of the most ardently lyrical performances of recent years.

Lux aeterna was greeted by The Times after its London premiere thus: "a classic of new American choral writing...in this light-filled continuum of sacred texts, old world structures and new world spirit intertwine in a cunningly written score, at once sensuous and spare." Were a comparison to be sought, it would perhaps with with Faure's Requiem, but this new work must surely be allowed to stand as unique.

The Madrigali, subtitled Six Fire Songs on Italian Renaissance Poems, are phenomenally challenging unaccompanied choral works, very much in the tradition of Monteverdi and Gesualdo. Yet the technical difficulties they present to the performer are disguised from the listener by a seamless sense of purpose which unites the cycle into a whole of stunning effect. Occupying a similarly opulent sound-world to Lux Aeterna, the three Latin motets which conclude this disc are truly modern masterpieces in the traditional motet genre.