Rautavaara: Missa a cappella

"The mystical choral world of Einojuhani Rautavaara has been entrancing audiences for more than 50 years, so a new work is always an event. Here we hear the first recording of his Missa a cappella, completed two years ago but with roots in the early 1970s, when he wrote the lengthy Credo. From the first bar of the Kyrie we are in his typically warm, homophonic world, soloists floating ethereally over pulsating patterns of thickly textured part writing. The arrow-straight voices of the wondrous Latvian Radio Choir suit this music perfectly, perhaps nowhere better than in the beautifully contemplative Agnus Dei. The mass is complemented by a selection of other delicious works, the Canticum Mariae Virginis being the most toothsome" (Stephen Pritchard, "Review," Guardian, 6/30/13).

View catalog record here!