This latest disc from Trinity showcases the talent of this marvellous young choir in a disc of seductively beautiful
spiritual music from Poland.
Pawel/ L/ ukaszewski is the most outstanding of the younger generation of Polish composers specializing in sacred choral
music. His ability to encapsulate the expressive essence of a text with immediacy and economy of technical means is
unrivalled, as is his facility of idiomatic vocal writing. He has an enormously subtle and varied harmonic palette—
unlike some of his contemporaries—and creates an organically new harmonic world for each piece. His extended tonal
sound world is enriched by highly selective use of vocal effects such as glissandi, parlando (speaking) and susurrando
(whispering), all of which occur invariably in direct response to clear textual stimuli.
A generous selection of L/ ukaszewski’s considerable output is recorded here, including the sequence of seven Advent
Antiphons composed in 1995–9. L/ ukaszewski’s extended settings cover a vast expressive range: from the dark eightand
twelve-part sonorities of O Clavis David to the ecstatic concluding superimposed thirds of O Oriens.
Conductor Stephen Layton is one of L/ ukaszewski’s most enthusiastic proponents—indeed he is the dedicatee of the
most recent work on this disc, the Nunc dimittis from 2007. He communicates this deep understanding of L/ ukaszewski’s
music to his young singers, coaxing from them a committed and potent performance.