COMPOSERS: Lukaszewski
LABELS: Hyperion
ALBUM TITLE: Lukaszewski
WORKS: O Antiphons; Two Lenten Motets; Psalmus 102; Nunc dimittis; Beatus vir, Sanctus Paulus; Beatus vir, Sanctus Antonius; Beatus vir, Sanctus Martinus
PERFORMER: Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge/Stephen Layton
CATALOGUE NO: CDA 67639
This disc covers works composed during the period from 1992 (when Pawe√ Lukaszewski was just 24) to 2007, with the series of seven Advent Antiphons written between 1995-99 as the centrepiece. Lukaszewski has worked extensively in Chile as well as in his native Poland, and was nominated as Man of the Year by the American Biographical Institute in 2000, but one of his greatest champions, to whom the Nunc Dimittis is dedicated, is Stephen Layton, here in Britain. Layton’s affinity with this radiant, accessible music is clear as he guides the Trinity College Choir, which sings with passion and purity throughout this programme. Lukaszewski employs what he describes as ‘renewed tonality’ and has been compared with ‘Holy Minimalists’ like Pärt, Górecki and Tavener, but in truth the similarities are slight. Indeed, here and there in the Antiphons, notably O Sapientia and O Radix Jesse, it is the American Minimalists who are evoked, but even these echoes are faint. Lukaszewski’s language is personal and individual, and is perhaps most directly illustrated by Ave Maria (1992) where simple, conventional harmonies are used in unexpected ways. Barry Witherden