... and ...... a collection of sacred music by Arvo Pärt, Julia Wolfe, Caroline Shaw, interspersed with songs from the Laudario di Cortona, Italy. ARS NOVACopenhagen was founded in 1979 and is widely recognized as one of the world’s finest vocal ensembles. The ensemble’s chief conductor and artistic director since 2003 is the acclaimed British conductor Paul Hillier. The ensemble specializes in the interpretation of the polyphonic choral music of the renaissance and new vocal music. Ars Nova is also building collaborations with creative artists in different fields such as drama, film, and ballet, as well as cultivating new modes of concert performance and innovative repertoire. The group’s performances are marked with precision and nerve and with a sound that attracts attention worldwide. With an annual concert season in Denmark, numerous concerts in the rest of Europe and recurring tours worldwide, the group is now more in demand than ever.
BBC Music Magazine February 2021
Thematic connections are to be teased out everywhere...Above all, this is consummate choral singing, Paul Hillier’s singers create moments of exquisite tenderness and stillness luminous, multi-coloured and virtuosic, each word lovingly and clearly enunciated, each line beautifully shaped, in a performance of deep, rapt spirituality...This recording offers spiritual revelation and sonic pleasure from start to finish. *****
Gramophone Magazine February 2021
This is a delightful and quirky programme (something to be expected of Paul Hillier, of course), mixing contemporary music with Italian medieval laude...Ars Nova are, as usual, fully in command of both early and recent styles: this is a sparkling, thoughtprovoking recording of great originality.
Kommentarer