Silvestrov: To Thee We Sing Latvian Radio Choir & Sigvards Kļava

• 1 I. Evening 02:18
• 2 II. Morning 02:41
• 3 III. Night 03:30
• 4 4 Spiritual Songs: Cherubic Song 02:34
• 5 4 Spiritual Songs: Alleluia 02:47
• 6 O Holy God 03:21
• 7 Ave Maria 03:20
• 8 I. The Lord's Prayer 04:51
• 9 II. Testament 08:58
• 10 No. 1, Mercy of Peace 05:03
• 11 No. 2, To Thee We Sing 03:14
• 12 No. 1, Alleluia 03:18
• 13 No. 2, Ave Maria 04:39
• 14 No. 1, I Sleep, Jesus 03:50
• 15 No. 2, Quiet Night 05:27
• Total Runtime 59:51

Info for Silvestrov: To Thee We Sing

Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov (b. 1937) is an important contemporary voice in vocal music. In this new release Silvestrov's hauntingly beautiful vocal works are performed by the Latvian Radio Choir under their director Sigvards Kava. During his artistic career Silvestrov has explored a number of musical styles and techniques, such as avant-guard, post-modernism, neo-classicism, dodecaphony, aleatoric writing and pointillism. The fall of the Soviet Union, however, allowed Silvestrov to eventually compose spiritual works, inspired and influenced by his love of the Russian Orthodox Church music which Silvestrov imbues with his own unique sound and bursts of surprising harmonic moves. Silvestrov's compositions are invested with the composer's own unique personality, musical sensibility and sense of beauty.

Latvian Radio Choir
Sigvards Klava, conductor

The Latvian Radio Choir (LRC)
ranks among the top professional chamber choirs in Europe and its refined taste for musical material, fineness of expression and vocal of unbelievably immense compass have charted it as a noted brand on the world map. Since 1992, LRC has two conductors – Sigvards Kļava, Music Director and Principal Conductor; and Kaspars Putniņš.

The repertoire of LRC ranges from the Renaissance music to the most sophisticated scores by modern composers; and it could be described as a sound laboratory – the singers explore their skills by turning to the mysteries of traditional singing, as well as to the art of quartertone and overtone singing and other sound production techniques. The choir has established a new understanding of the possibilities of a human voice; one could also say that the choir is the creator of a new choral paradigm: every singer is a distinct individual with his or her own vocal signature and roles in performances. The expertise of singers has made LRC a remarkably flexible ensemble able to deal with vocal and instrumental music, as well as with opera performances, multi-media projects, intimate a capella talks, and theatrical shows where singers can express themselves as soloists and talented actors.

e choir has participated in the top international musical forums in Salzburg and Montpellier, the Baltic Sea Festival, Klangspuren Festival, La Musica, Ultima, the Venice Biennale, White Light Festival USA, Soundstreams in Canada; and performed in renowned concert halls such as the Concertgebouw and Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam, Konzerthaus in Berlin, and Cité de la Musique in Paris, Lincoln Center in New York and Dresden Frauenkirche. LRC has successfully worked with many outstanding guest conductors, including Riccardo Muti, Heinz Holliger, Lars Ulrik Mortensen, Stephen Layton, Tõnu Kaljuste, James Wood, and Esa-Pekka Salonen, among others. The Latvian Radio Choir records on a regular basis. Every season, three or four new CDs appear in collaboration with such labels as Hyperion Records, BIS, GB Records, Ondine, and Naïve.

Sigvards Kļava
is one of the most outstanding Latvian conductors, also a professor of conducting and producer, music director of the Latvian Radio Choir since 1992. As a result of Sigvards Kļava’s steady efforts, the Latvian Radio Choir has become an internationally recognized, vocally distinctive collective, where each singer possesses a creative individuality. Under Sigvards’ guidance, the choir has recorded a number of choral works by little known or completely forgotten composers of the past, as well as formed a friendly collaboration with a number of notable Latvian composers. Sigvards Kļava is a professor at the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music. Kļava is a multiple winner of the Latvian Grand Music Award. He has performed at the Concertgebouw and Muziekgebouw of Amsterdam, Berliner Konzerthaus and Philharmonie, Théâtre des Champs- Élysées in Paris, Berwaldhallen in Stockholm, Dresdner Frauenkirche as well as in the New York Lincoln Centre.

This album contains no booklet.