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Valossa (From Darkness To Light) - Juris

Valossa (From Darkness To Light) - Juris

Alba Records  NCD 47

Stereo/Multichannel Hybrid

Classical - Vocal


Komulainen, Juhani - Vinternatten (One Winter’s Night) (2010)
Poulenc, Francis - Un soir de neige (A Night Of Snow) FP. 126 (1944)
Mahler, Gustav arr. Gottwald, Clytus - Die zwei blauen Augen (The Two Blue Eyes) (1896/2001)
Kuula, Toivo - Venelaulu (The Boat Song Barcarolle) Op. 21/2 (1912)
Monteverdi, Claudio - O Primavera (O Spring) (1592)
Heiniö, Mikko - Three Folk Songs for Double Mixed Choir Op. 28 (1977)
Palmgren, Selim - Juhannus (Midsummer) (1927)
Madetoja, Leevi - Onnelliset (Happiness) Op. 13/2 (1911)
Jersild, Jørgen - Min yndlingsdal (My Beloved Valley) (1971)
Rautavaara, Einojuhani - Och glädjen den dansar (With Joy We Go Dancing) (1993)
Schönberg, Arnold - Schein uns, du liebe Sonne (Shine On Us, Dear Sun) (1929)

Kaamos Chamber Choir
Dani Juris (conductor)

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Review by John Miller - March 4, 2013

The Kaamos Chamber Choir is a mixed 'a cappella' chorus, formed during 2007 in the Helsinki area. This is its debut recording, and celebrates pieces which have been important in the choir's development since its inception. It also makes a pleasantly cohesive programme with the theme of transition from Winter to Summer, an integral part of life in Scandinavian countries. As the disc's subtitle expresses it, moving from Light to Dark.

At the time of writing, the choir consists of S10,A9,T6,B8 and they are conducted by Dani Juris (b.1984). Trained in Finland (Helsinki Metropolia University, he is presently preparing his diploma exam at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki under professor Matti Hyökki. He also has an international background, reaching to South America, the Middle East, Great Britain and Central Europe. Juris also wrote the perceptive and informative booklet notes.

The choir's programme is a challenging one, mostly with pieces which are not recorded often enough. Without commenting on each song (which the booklet does very helpfully in Finnish and English), I was impressed by the rendition of the 4 movement Poulenc Chamber Cantata "De grandes cuillers de neige" (Great drifts of snow), where its poem uses the bleak Winter landscape as a symbol of war. The dynamics of the first movement alone run from piano pianissimo to a deliberately brutal forte fortissimo. The performance is excellent, deeply expressive and beautifully controlled, and with a believable French accent, except for the authentic alveolar trills on "r".

Another very striking and demanding piece is Clytus Gottwald's setting of Mahler's Die Zwei blauen augen (Two Blue Eyes) from the Wayfarer Songs. It is for 16 parts divided into 4 choirs. Gottwald's aim was to provide major romantic music in a cappella form in order to counterbalance a tendency for choirs to sing with orchestras early in the last century. As an attempt to render Mahler's deft orchestration into vocal form, it is most impressive. The choir deal well with the significant quotation from Schubert's "Winter Journey" song cycle; the steady tramp of the protagonist across the dark heath to say goodby to the lover and the final stanza "All! All, love and sorrow and world and dream" are radiantly memorable.

Spring arrives with a golden "O Primavera" from Monteverdi, and some puckish folk-songs in clever modern arrangements by Mikko Heiniö (b. 1948) lighten the mood with references to fiddlers, drink, loving and dancing. Summer is heralded by Selim Palmgrën (whose work is sadly rarely heard these days) and Einojuhani Rautavaara tells us that even though people come and go, the lilies always puch up each Spring, The but the Danish Jørgen Jorsild (1913-2004) rather brings us down again with an infinitely intense reminder of grief, and the inevitability of death. The choir don't fail to pick up the intensity, and present this technically difficult song as if it were ready for a major competition.

Ending the disc is a sunny surprise from Schönberg! A beautiful four-part arrangement of the folk song "Schein uns, du liebe Sonne" (Shine on us, thou beloved Sun). The soft, delicate sounds made by the choir in this piece, which does not rise above piano, are ravishing, and one can see why this piece is very popular with Central European choirs.

The purity of voices, particularly of the sopranos, fine voice leading, accurate dynamic control and shear joy of singing are exemplary characteristics of this choir. Exemplary too is Mika Koivusalo's engineering, which we usually encounter in organ recordings. His simple microphone array at sweet spots approach produces a perfect sense of being inside the Meilahti Church; in multichannel one can easily envision the church acoustic to the extent of knowing how far away its walls and ceiling are from your seat. There is no need to blanch as the full choir reaches its forte fortissimo climaxes; of distortion there is none, you can hear throats opening and the church acoustic responding.

A few words on lyrics and their translation. It helps to be something of a polyglot, for the Swedish, French, German, Danish and Italian texts are only given Finnish translations. whereas the Finnish texts are give English translations. No matter really; the notes summarize the "action" in each song, and in any case they speak for themselves - or should that be sing?

I found this to be a choral disc of rare beauty. It is hard to keep it away from the player, and perfect for listening to in a quiet evening with a glass of wine. Well done to Alba and to all those concerned. Now don't miss this one if you like choral music.

Copyright © 2013 John Miller and HRAudio.net

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