Lux Aeterna

Reviews

Grammy Nomination for Best Choral Performance, 1998
Critic's Choice 1998, American Record Guide
Best Classical Recordings of 1998

American Record Guide Review
Greenfield, American Record Guide, Sept/Oct 1998
   This program accomplished the impossible: it actually made me regret not being from Los Angeles so I could join the Master Chorale under Maestro Salamunovich's direction and spend my days singing Morten Lauridsen's music. Lauridsen, professor and chair of the composition department at USC, is also Composer-in-Residence of the chorale. He writes heart-felt, radiant, absolutely gorgeous music; and it is delivered con amore here by everyone concerned.
   Lux Aeterna is a five-movement non-liturgical Requiem for choir and chamber orchestra that draws from the Mass, plus portions of the Te Deum, O Nata Lux, and Veni Sancte Spiritus. What a powerfully uplifting work it is. "Ave Maria" and "O Magnum Mysterium" are a cappella pieces full of long lines, arching suspensions, shimmering dissonances, and intense spiritual beauty. Lauridsen's work in the secular realm is represented by two song cycles: Les chansons des Roses, which employs five flower-inspired texts by Rainer Maria Rilke, and the five orchestrated Mid-Winter Songs inspired by the poetry of Robert Graves.
   I don't want to waste time stringing adjectives together. Suffice it to say this is all music straight from the heart. Emotions churn in warm, gentle ways, and you'd have to be a constipated, curmudgeonly old coot inside not to be moved by it! The choir and orchestra sound like they were deputized by the angels to bring this music to earth. RCM's sound is warm; and plush and the notes, once they stop babbling, are helpful. This will be on my Year's Best List for sure come January. I bet it makes yours too!

The Insider's Guide to Classical Recordings
Jim Svejda
   This hypnotically beautiful album might almost be characterized as contemporary vocal music for people who don't think they like contemporary vocal music, for the first recording of the ravishing Lux Aeterna by the Los Angeles-based composer Morten Lauridsen demonstrates that it is possible for important contemporary music to speak directly to the heart.
   Composed in 1997 for the Los Angeles Master Chorale -- who, not surprisingly, performs the work as though it had been written for them -- Lux Aeterna is a rich, complex, intensely moving piece that people will be listening to for a long time to come. While the idiom is no more threatening than that of the English composer John Rutter, the music itself is of far greater substance and depth. The other works on the album are no less lovely, especially Les Chansons des Roses, which has a fair claim to being the finest Rilke setting yet made by an American composer. Paul Salamunovich extracts brilliant performances from his superbly drilled forces and the recorded sound is superb.    If you think that modern music is largely confined to the mindless delights of minimalism or incomprehensible noise, then this wonderfully human music will prove how wrong you are.

Review
Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times
   Morten Lauridsen's compulsively listenable Lux Aeterna was an instant hit when the Los Angeles Master Chorale premiered it in 1997. A recording by the chorus on RCM Records was nominated for a Grammy and it still sells out of the record shops after a broadcast. People hear it and they are moved.

Morten Lauridsen Choral Works
Daniel Cariaga, Los Angeles Times
   Both esoteric and accessible, simultaneously popular and deep, the music of Morten Lauridsen grips its audience and compels attention. Five of the composer's masterly works -- he is a longtime USC faculty member and has been resident composer for the L.A. Master Chorale since 1994 -- prove to be varied in style yet consistent in their ability to reach and touch the listener. They are sung here with passionate intensity and careful detailing by the appropriately named Master Chorale. Salamunovich demands and gets a full range of dynamics, controls the arc of each expressive moment and builds and releases tensions according to textual needs; the chorale sings as if possessed. The Sinfonia Orchestra supports with strength and finesse. Give it to your best friend.
4 Stars (our of a possible 4)

Lauridsen: 'Lux Aeterna,' Other Works
The New York Times
   The life of a choral composer does not elicit much envy these days. Unless that composer is Morten Lauridsen, who not only enjoys the respect of music directors throughout America but also has at his disposal the Los Angeles Master Chorale, one of America's top vocal ensembles.
   On this CD, the Master Chorale performs five works by Mr. Lauridsen, three recorded for the first time. All receive mellifluous and devoted readings under the pointed direction of Paul Salamunovich.
   The album's title, "Lux Aeterna," comes from the 1997 work that opens the CD, but perpetual light shones on all the settings. Churls will insist that a quasi-pop sensibility mars Mr. Lauridsen's efforts, but such criticism ignores the music's potency. And though unabashed religiosity stands at the center of "Lux Aeterna," "Ave Maria" (1997) and "O Magnum Mysterium" (1994), all sung in Latin, a different sort of beauty characterizes "Les Chansons des Roses" (1993) and "Mid-Winter Songs" (1990), which use poetry for inspiration.
   The extroverted "Chansons des Roses," sung in French and based on five Rilke texts, focus on flowers. The more melancholy "Mid-Winter Songs," set to English words by Robert Graves, pay musical homage to the English Renaissance and Aaron Copland.
   As for the sound, the CD's spacious acoustics prove alternately grand and intimate.

Grammy Nomination Citation
Borders Books & Music
   Lauridsen composes choral music for which the word beautiful seems inadequate, and which is loved by both veteran and novice choral listeners. For those unfamiliar with him, this recording is probably the best example of his breath-taking music, and for those who already know and love his music, this transcendent recording is a must have.

Borders Review
Borders Books & Music
   This is a collection of choral works by the esteemed composer, all of which were performed by the Los Angeles Master Chorale, conducted by Paul Salamunovich. The long, flowing, beautiful melodies will carry you away. This disc was nominated for the 1998 Grammy Award for "Best Choral Performance."
   In this collection of mostly sacred choral works, composer Morten Lauridsen shows himself to be well-versed in the great choral traditions both old and new...
   'Lux Aeterna' draws on Latin texts which refer to light (lux), bracketed by excerpts from the Requiem Mass: the familiar "Requiem Aeternam" to begin and "Agnus Dei-Lux Aeterna" to close. Aside from the textual references, the work recalls the Requiems of Faure, Durufle and Brahms in its rich choral textures which are supported but never overwhelmed by the orchestra.
   'Les Chansons des Roses' and 'Mid-Winter Songs' bring similarly rewarding choral writing to secular texts, penned by Rainer Maria Rilke and Robert Graves respectively. Lauridsen's mastery of colorful scoring shines in his orchestral version of 'Mid-Winter Songs,' an evocative tapestry of sound. The Los Angeles Master Chorale sings throughout with obvious devotion to the works, bringing the music to life. Paul Salamunovich leads them with assurance, drawing first-class performances from his ensemble. This disc may be a bit off the beaten path, but it's a must for everyone with an interest in choral music.

Sound Worlds of Their Own

   Chants, medieval or modern, are in. Perhaps the busier we are, the simpler the music we seem to be drawn to. Perhaps we are trying to relax, to remember how music can be a form of prayer.
   The choral works of California-based composer Morten Lauridsen certainly have a soothing effect, but you could hardly call them plainchant. They are richly romantic in their chromatic shifts and the full use of the chorus, often subdivided into multiple parts.
   The "Lux Aeterna," a 1997 work that has become hugely popular, is really a mass for the dead, using an eclectic mix of words drawn from the Te Deum, the Requiem Mass and other sacred texts. In the first movement, the chorus sings over a strong bass line in the orchestral accompaniment that recalls the bass line of the Brahms "Requiem":  Both create a sense of doom and finality. The words themselves -- all on texts invoking light -- are almost murmured, as if by a large congregation, which creates a great gorgeous fabric of choral sound, glinting with frequent and unpredictable shifts in the close harmony. There is a sense of emotion that surges in great arches, in the tradition of Renaissance polyphony.
   ...It is a beautiful piece that creates a unique sound-world and pushes you, mysteriously, to the edge of tears.
   The Los Angeles Master Chorale, the descendant of the famous Roger Wagner Chorale, is simply stunning -- as precise and fine a large choir as any in the world, I'd venture -- and it is captured in the ideally resonant acoustic of the Sacred Heart Chapel in Los Angeles. Four stars to RCM for the sound alone.

Mourning, Healing Music
The News & Observer; People's Forum, Mark Higgins
   I was surprised and elated to discover the review of Morten Lauridsen's choral piece "Lux Aeterna" beaming over the well-deserved designation of four stars (Arts & Entertainment section, May 28)!
   This is a sensational work of music which elevates the soul and has, I believe, remarkable healing power. As co-owner of Hall-Wynne Funeral Service in Durham, I have given several copies of "Lux Aeterna" to grieving families who appreciate scared music. All have remarked not only about its stunning and mystifying beauty, but also of the soothing effect and the ability to convey a profound sense of hope. Besides a masterpiece for any choral music afficionado's collection, this is a must for anyone mourning a significant loss.

CD Review
John Phillips Reviews, London
   This disc is my choral disc of the year!!! I cannot see how it could be bettered, both musically, performance and recording wise.  Although it is not available as yet in the UK, I urge you to get it from the U.S. (Amazon.com can supply it by return).  You will not regret the investment.
   I first heard O Magnum Mysterium (of half of it, I now realise) on a Radio Four programme over Christmas, and being initially impressed with the work, started to hunt it down.  Having received the disc and listened to the remainder of the works on the disc, I was completely bowled over...
   Lux Aeterna was inspired by the Brahms Requiem, although there is little similiarity in the two pieces, except for the sense of dedication and the use of slow, deep introduction a la Brahms.  There are five movements:  Introitus, In Te Domine Speravi, O Nata Lux, Veni Sanctus Spiritus, and Agnus Dei-Lux Aetnera.  These form roughly the movements of a normal Requiem, and the devotional character is well to the front, with soaring choral lines which make the hairs on the back of your neck rise up in unison.
   With Les Chansons des Roses from 1993, we come to song settings of texts by Rainer Maria Rilke, and the last one "Dirait-on" has become very popular in its own right in the U.S.  These settings are for chorus only, with the last one being supplied with piano accompaniment by the composer.
   Ave Maria is a one movement work written as a 70th birthday gift to the conductor, and is a serene setting of the religious text.  I would have been honoured to receive such a gift, and the performance from the choir is absolutely superb.
   Mid-Winter Songs are settings of poems of Robert Graves, taken from his collected works, each having the theme of winter.  The work has appeared in various guises, originally for mixed choir and piano, which was written in 1981.   The first orchestral version, written in 1983, was supplanted by the current version, written in 1990 for the Los Angeles Master Chorale.
   Finally we come to O Magnum Mysterium, premiered in 1994 by the current artists.  This superb 5½ minute work for solo choir is worth the whole price of the disc.  This rounds off an absolutely enthralling disc which I can't imagine any music lover not being moved by.
   The Los Angeles Master Chorale with their conductor Paul Salamunovich is made up of some 90 singers, most of whom seem to be fairly young, judging from the fresh, exciting sounds that they make.  Apparently, they are the main choir appearing with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, and I cannot understand why they are still to release their first disc in the U.K.
   This superb disc is a must -- I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.

CD of the Month
Wetpaint.org
   This 1998 Grammy nominee isn't new, but the music is timeless, and I just couldn't pass up this gift to you.   Lauridsen writes music full of moments of aching consolation that are so beautiful you can hardly stand as your spirit overflows from the rush of emotion.  The inner radiance of "Lux Aeterna" shifts like a soft light over folds of rich velvet, building from chant-inspired, meditative repose to rapturous outpouring.  Robert Graves' Mid-Winter Songs evoke a more wintry realm.   Les Chansons des Roses, setings of my favorite poet, Rilke, include Lauridsen's popular "Dirait-on."  The Los Angeles Master Chorale and Sinfonia invite you to connect with the spirit of these works with their warmth and serene confidence.  True Soul Music.
   Performance: 5/5   Sound: 5/5

RCM Catalog Description
RCM Records
   Morten Lauridsen is currently Chair of the Composition Department at the University of Southern California as well as composer-in-residence with the Los Angeles Master Chorale. He has enjoyed a close collaboration wth the Master Chorale's Music Director, Paul Salamunovich, and so it seemed a perfect fit when the Master Chorale commissioned and premiered Lauridsen's Lux Aeterna, O Magnum Mysterium, and Ave Maria. The resulting RCM recording by the 120-voice Master Chorale conducted by Maestro Salamunovich has garnered a Grammy nomination as well as critical accolades, and listener raves. Its continued sales at brick and mortar, on internet retail venues, and from NPR fund drives is proven testament to the success of Lux Aeterna. Continued performances by the Master Chorale as well as major choral groups throughout the world, coupled with consistent radio airplay ensure the continued health and success of Lux Aeterna.

mortenlauridsen.com