Hafliði Hallgrímsson
Passía
Hallgrímskirkja Motet Choir
Hördur Askelsson, conductor
Gardar Thór Cortes, tenor
Mary Nessinger, mezzo-soprano
Vocal
Booklet with liner notes, written by the composer, in English, German, French and Icelandic and the sung text in the original Icelandic and in English
CD
Released:
January 2004
Catalogue No.:
ODE 1027-2
EAN/UPC Code:
0761195102725
Mary Nessinger and Gardar Thór Cortes (...) offer impassioned singing (...). Ondine's recording captures the spacious acoustic in vivid, high-impact sound.
Victor Carr Jr., ClassicsToday.com, October 2004, Artistic Quality 10 / Sound Quality 10
(...) absolutely spine-tingling and sound and graphic stereo separation, it sounds suspiciously like a modern religious masterpiece (...). Enthusiastically recommended.
Calum MacDonald, BBC Music Magazine, May 2004, Performance*****, Sound*****
Passía is a large-scale work for choir, soloists, orchestra and two organs, which the Icelandic composer Hafliði Hallgrímsson wrote to texts by 20th-century Icelandic poets, as well as to the Passiusalmar (Hymns of Passion) by 17th-century priest Hallgrimur Pettursson. The work is a commission from the Hallgríms Church's Arts Society in Reyykjavík, to celebrate 1000 years of Christianity in Iceland. The recording took place at the Hallgríms Church in March 2002.
