The title
Credo
might lead one to believe that this is an album of religious music, but here, the
State Choir Latvija
("
Latvian State Choir
") and director
Maris Sirmais
are after something different: the theme of "love among people, love of faith and of God, and love as emotion sensuality." That covers quite a bit of territory, but the moods and textures of the music on the album are generally consistent as if to emphasize the commonality between these forms of love. The pieces are all slow, the texture polyphonic, and the mood warm. The program is framed, except for the final
title work
, by two large, opulent choral pieces of
Richard Strauss
, one sacred and one secular, and neither terribly often performed. These contain dense choral writing that the singers of the
deftly untangle. Interestingly, none of the music on the album is Latvian or even Baltic. The
Four Songs of Love
by
Sven-David Sandstroem
, in English, are actually sacred pieces, setting texts from the Song of Songs. They feature an interesting texture in which the lower parts are wordless before picking up the text.
Clytus Gottwald
's texted version of the
Louange a l'eternite de Jesus
from the
Quartet for the End of Time
is included, but much less familiar are two works by Slovenian composers,
Ambroz Copi
and
Matej Kastelic
. The latter is the composer of the
: a fascinating piece that weaves together the Latin Creed, spoken English text that problematizes it somewhat, a quotation from a motet by
Antonio Lotti
, and more. This may or may not fit perfectly with
Sirmais
' theme, but it doesn't matter; this work is worth the time expended on hearing the whole album.
Hyperion
's engineers do well in the less-familiar environs of St. John's Church in Riga, Latvia, bringing out the many shades in the sounds of the top-notch choir here. A superb choral release containing music that will be new to most listeners. ~ James Manheim