COMPOSERS: Lauridson
LABELS: Hyperion
ALBUM TITLE: Lauridson: Lux Aeterna
WORKS: Lux aeterna; Madrigali; Ave Maria; Ubi caritas et amor; O magnum mysterium
PERFORMER: Polyphony, Britten Sinfonia, Stephen Layton
CATALOGUE NO: CDA 67449
Morton Lauridsen is a West Coast
American composer, now in his
early sixties, who has achieved a cult
status among choral singers similar
to that of John Rutter in Britain.
His Lux aeterna, for choir and
orchestra, is a setting of sacred Latin
texts of prayer and consolation, in a
conservative idiom laced with mild
dissonances that don’t so much
disturb as enhance the essentially
comfortable nature of the music.
Three unaccompanied Latin motets
are similarly euphonious and
reassuring. The unaccompanied
Madrigali are settings of Italian
Renaissance madrigal texts in an
updated madrigal idiom – though
the expressive dissonances that are
so thrilling in Monteverdi and
Gesualdo have less effect here,
where they aren’t challenging rigid
compositional rules.
Stephen Layton’s Polyphony seems
perhaps less perfectly blended than on
some previous releases, but combines
well with the excellent Britten
Sinfonia; and it all sounds beautiful
in two generous London church
acoustics. Anthony Burton