Schnittke: Choir Concerto & Minnesang (CD Review - The Times, 2002)

None of the music ... gets the spine tingling as much as the Schnittke choral music sung by the Holst Singers, conducted by Stephen Layton, on Hyperion CDA 67297. Minnesang, from 1981, features 52 voices surging ecstatically through medieval German love songs. In the 40-minute Concerto for Mixed Chorus, from the mid 1980s, Schnittke adopts the hieratic manner of the Russian Orthodox church: music great for contemplation, and a terrific showcase for the choir’s stamina.

Geoff Brown

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