O Listen! - ウロシュ・クレーク、マリー・バーゼ: 合唱作品集

デンマーク国立声楽アンサンブルと新首席指揮者マルティナ・バティッチの最新アルバム。ここではバティッチの故郷、スロベニアの作曲家ウロシュ・クレークと、電子音楽の先駆者エルセ・マリー・パーゼの作品が取り上げられています。クレークの作品は調性感を持つハーモニーの中に、民族音楽の影響を受けたポリフォニーが取り入れられたもので、どれも神秘的な美しさをたたえています。パーゼの合唱曲は、1950年代の作品と電子音楽を用いた「マリア」(1980)を収録。「マリア」は、戦争のトラウマを癒すために書かれた作品で、聖母マリアの苦しみの段階を描いた11の楽章で構成された大作。現代宗教音楽の傑作の一つと評価されています。この曲の電子音楽の部分は1972年に彼女自身が作成したもので、演奏時はスピーカーで再生されます。ここで清冽なソプラノ・ソロを聴かせるのはデンマーク出身のアンナ・ミルマン。2023年からデンマーク国立声楽アンサンブルのメンバーとして活躍しています。
ナクソス・ジャパン

Uroš Krek and Else Marie Pade are likely to be unknown to most listeners outside their respective countries of Slovenia and Denmark, but that is just one attraction of this 2025 release by the always impressive Danish National Vocal Ensemble. The notes to the physical version (recommended) suggest that "[l]ittle might seem to connect the music of [Krek and Pade] apart from the rough proximity of their birth-years," but notes several common factors, including the intriguing one that both worked at their national radio stations. The combination of the two composers is uniquely persuasive here. Both are rooted in a traditional, largely tonal style but depart sharply from it with dramatic effect; they may write tonally or move into more dissonant sounds, all in a consistent style. Kreks Three Autumn Songs, which are in English, were intended as a response to the violence that consumed the countries of the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Perhaps the most striking work here is Pades Maria, one of the few sacred works to make use of electronics. Those electronics provide quite subtle accompaniment, at times suggesting church bells, to an ensemble of soprano, bass-baritone, a spoken-world choir, and seven trombones. The piece, in Latin, has considerable subtlety, with many semi-static passages but a climbing soprano line that is quite difficult and beautifully handled by Anna Miilmann. The work has at once a chant-like and deeply contemporary quality, and it is well worth hearing. The music is well worth hearing again, but the performances by the small (18-member) Danish National Vocal Ensemble under Martina Batič are going to be hard to exceed. The recording at a Danish Radio studio, with the choir in circular formation around the microphones, is absolutely top-notch and should attract audiophiles. ~ James Manheim