In this piece Nystedt makes very effective use of dynamic contrasts and it seems to me that his music sits very well with the sentiments of the words. So too is Be not afraid which takes for its text some words from Isaiah. This unaccompanied setting of lines from St John’s Gospel is an impressive composition. Harald Herresthal rightly refers to the “warmth and inner strength” of Peace I leave with you. Knut Nystedt’s pieces are all excellent choices and all are very well done. Pedersen does the two trio movements one to a part and she adopts a similar approach to the five-part chorale ‘Gute Nacht, o Wesen’, which I think works particularly well. The fugue that comes between these two sections is nimbly done. In BWV 227 I like very much the expression in the chorales ‘Trotz dem alten Drachen’ and ‘Weg mit allen Schätzen!’ Here especially the import of the words is strikingly conveyed. BWV118 is beautifully sculpted by Grete Pedersen and the singing is stylish. For BWV 227 they’re reinforced by a pair of oboes, a bassoon and an organ.īoth of the Bach pieces go very well indeed. I suspect it’s the former but in the Bach pieces the sound that they produce is akin to period strings. It’s not entirely clear, even from visiting their website, whether they play on modern or period instruments. This is a group of 17 young string players (9/3/3/2), who came together in 2007. In some of the items they’re joined by the Ensemble Allegria. The singing on this disc shows the group to be a flexible, versatile and highly accomplished ensemble they make a very fine sound indeed. We learn in the booklet that the choir “comprises 26 highly trained singers, all potential soloists in various genres as well as fully embracing the art of ensemble singing.” From that you might expect an extremely high standard of performance and you’d be right. It was a very happy idea to combine his music with that of Bach since Harald Herresthal points out in his notes that Bach’s music was very important to Nystedt throughout his long career as a singer, conductor and composer. In the event it became a memorial for he died in December 2014, just a few weeks before the sessions, at the age of 99. Recordings inevitably take time to plan so I presume this present disc was conceived as a tribute to Nystedt. His successor, Grete Pedersen has been in post ever since. The first was its founder, Knut Nystedt, who directed it until 1990 when he retired. February 2015, Ris Kirke, Oslo, Norwayĭet Norske Solistkor (The Norwegian Soloists’ Choir) was founded in 1950 and, remarkably, has had only two conductors. for choir and strings by Grete Pedersen) Immortal Bach, after JS Bach (BWV478) (1987)(arr. O Jesu Christ, meins Lebens Licht, BWV118 Īve Maria for violin and mixed choir, Op 110 (1986) Support us financially by purchasing this from