Haapanen / Helsinki Chamber Choir / Schweckendiek - Reports - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Composed in 1982, Arvo Pärt's Passio has retained it's place as one of the foremost works of sacred music of the late 20th century. It has been called a minimalist masterpiece, and is a seminal work in the composer's oeuvre - the culmination of his so-called tintinnabuli style, and the first in a line of large-scale choral works on religious themes. Passion settings have a long history, with polyphonic settings for choral performance beginning in the 15th century and continuing up until the high baroque and the monumental works by Johann Sebastian Bach. In his Passion, Pärt looks back to an older tradition, however - the medieval one of a single voice chanting the text. As a result, the narrative - chapters 18 and 19 of the Gospel of St. John - becomes the basis for sustained spiritual contemplation rather than the drama of Bach's Passions. Another important distinction from earlier Passion settings is Pärt's treatment of the Evangelist, who narrates the story. Rather than a single voice, he employs a quartet soprano, alto, tenor and bass, accompanied by an ensemble of four instruments. The only other instrument used in the work is the organ, again in contrast to the larger instrumental forces of the Bach Passions. This contemplative work is here performed by the Helsinki Chamber Choir under Nils Schweckendiek.

J.S. Bach - Die Kunst Der Fuge [COMPACT DISCS] date 01/01/2000

From a 21st-century perspective, Sibelius may appear to stand more or less alone in the history of Finnish music. It is easy to forget that he could not have fulfilled his artistic potential if his environment had not been conducive to musical creativity. But much of the music that was part of that environment has been almost completely forgotten, often because it's aesthetic didn't accord with the prevailing nationalist trends of the late 19th century. In this programme of choral works, Nils Schweckendiek and his Helsinki Chamber Choir guide us through some 80 years of Finnish music for choir, from the period when the country formed part of the Russian Empire, as the Grand Duchy of Finland. It was during this time that a Finnish nationalist movement began to take form, in opposition towards the political and cultural dominance of Russia and Sweden respectively. This development can be traced in the way the idea of Spring - a staple in the songs of the Nordic countries - changes from a sense of joy at the end to the hardships of winter to a metaphor for liberation from political oppression. Another result was the Fennicization towards the end of the 19th century, during which many popular Swedish and German-language songs were translated into Finnish and the originals in effect suppressed - a case in point being the earliest piece on the disc, F. A. Ehrström's Svanen (The Swan, 1833), which has had it's original Swedish text restored for this recording.