Meditatio: music for mixed choir (2016)

Rakel Edda Guðmundsdóttir (soprano), Ragnheiður Sara Grímsdóttir (soprano), Thelma Hrönn Sigurdórsdóttir (soprano), Kirstín Erna Blöndal (soprano), Jóhanna Ósk Valsdóttir (alto), Helgi Steinar Helgason (tenor), Fjölnir Ólafsson (bass) & Schola Cantorum Reykjavicensis, Hörður Áskelsson

Growing out of concerts given by Schola cantorum Reykjavicensis and Hörður Áskelsson on All Soul’s Day, Meditatio presents a programme of expressive choral works which interpret grief and bereavement in the light of hope and comfort. Apart from Jón Leifs’ singularly serene Requiem, the composer’s response to the death of his daughter in 1947, all the pieces date from the past 35 years – from The Lamb by John Tavener from 1982 to Nunc dimittis (2015) by Sigurður Sævarsson, Icelandic composer as well as member of Schola cantorum. The ‘Canticle of Simeon’, as this song of praise from the Bible is also called, appears in two other settings on the disc – by Arvo Pärt and by Hreiðar Ingi who, like Sævarsson, sings bass in the choir. Four other Icelandic composers are represented on the disc, including the choir’s conductor Hörður Áskelsson and Þorkell Sigurbjörnsson, whose Heyr, himna smiður (‘Hear, Heaven’s creator’) – a setting of a thirteenth-century hymn – has gained recognition far beyond Iceland. Otherwise the choir performs music by the Latvian composer ?riks Ešenvalds, the Scotsman James MacMillan – his A Child’s Prayer commemorates the victims of the school massacre in the Scottish town of Dunblane in March 1996 – and by Morten Lauridsen and Eric Whitacre, both from the U.S.A. Schola cantorum Reykjavicensis was founded in 1996 by Hörður Áskelsson, who remains its artistic director, and has appeared on a number of BIS recordings with music by Jón Leifs. The choir performs regularly in Reykjavík’s famous Hallgrímskirkja where the present recording took place.

Áskelsson:
 Hvíld

Ešenvalds:
 O salutaris Hostia

Gudmundsson:
 Hvíld

Lauridsen:
 Lux aeterna

Leifs:
 Requiem, Op. 33b for mixed choir a cappella (Text: Folk poetry and Jonas Hallgrimsson)

MacMillan:
 A Child's Prayer

Pärt:
 Nunc dimittis

Sævarsson:
 Nunc dimittis

Sigurbjörnsson, T:
 Heyr himna smiður
 Nú hverfur sól í haf

Tavener:
 The Lamb

Whitacre:
 Lux aurumque

Þorvaldsdóttir:
 Heyr þú oss himnum á

"The singers have a distinctive timbre, with strength held in reserve in almost every item"
Choir & Organ - February 2017

"Truly an outstanding disc."
Music Week - October 2016