This essential three-disc collection of virtuoso choral music is drawn from recordings made by the legendary conductor Eric Ericson and the inimitable Rundfunkchor Stockholm and Stockholm Chamber Choir in 1970-71 and 1975. The repertoire is a veritable feast of some of the most formidable a cappella works ever written, including Schoenberg’s Friede auf Erden, Ligeti’s Morgen, Nacht, and Lux aeterna, Poulenc’s Figure humaine, three sets of “trois chansons” by Debussy, Badings, and Ravel, and Goffredo Petrassi’s five wild and wonderful settings of Edward Lear limericks titled Nonsense.
The performances are classic and have long stood as benchmarks for many of these pieces, which are technically beyond the reach of all but the most accomplished professional choirs. Although today’s ensembles tend to take a lighter, more agile approach to such works as the Debussy and Ravel chansons and to the Renaissance selections–and never would perform Tallis’ Spem in alium with continuo instruments, the artistic values and musical integrity inherent in Ericson’s impeccably rehearsed performances assure the listener that nothing was spared to produce the most polished, faithful renditions possible. The sound varies from amazingly clean and clear to dense and saturated, this latter condition especially troublesome in the Tallis, whose 40-part texture admittedly is problematic to record under the best of conditions. Nevertheless, serious choral music fans must have this set, which they likely already own in its LP incarnations; others who wish to know what the highest-order choral singing and repertoire is all about could well begin here, or with Clarion’s other Ericson collection titled Virtuoso Choral Music (see reviews).
