in croce

Nystedt: Stabat Mater, Op. 111, for choir and cello
B. Hummel: ‘Abschied’ for solo cello
Pärt: Nunc dimittis for choir
Gubaidulina: Prelude No. 5
Barber: Agnus Dei based on the Adagio
Kancheli: “After the Tears” for solo cello
Tavener: ‘Svyati’ for choir and cello

Julius Berger (cello)
“Kamer…” Youth Choir,
Maris Sirmais

Recorded in 2007

Artists have always pondered how they might ‘emotionally translate’ rather abstract trains of thought to their fellow human beings, making them comprehensible. Among the contemporary composers who have explored this theme is, for example, the Norwegian Knut Nystedt. His ‘Stabat Mater’, Op. 111, is inspired on the one hand by early church music such as Gregorian chant, whilst on the other it thrives entirely on the dialogue between soloist and mixed choir. The task of bidding farewell to the world with a work for solo cello entitled ‘Abschied’ (Farewell) fell to the composer Bertold Hummel, who passed away on 9 August 2002. For Julius Berger, who was already responsible for the Berlin premiere on 9 September 2002, it means “listening into a person’s final train of thought”. The fact that the process of artistic self-discovery can be a lifelong one is evidenced by the work of the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt. The melodic and rhythmic patterns from which the celestial sounds of the ‘Nunc Dimittis’ for mixed choir, recorded here, are derived are also reminiscent of the polyphony typical of the Viennese Classical period. Works such as those by the composer Sofia Gubaidulina, who was born in the USSR in the 1930s, and by Samuel Barb