Lauridsen: Nocturnes & other choral works – Polyphony, Stephen Layton Hyperion

Mid-Winter Songs[19’01]with Britten Sinfonia
1
Lament for Pasiphaë Dying sun, shine warm a little longer![5’15]2
Like Snow She, then, like snow in a dark night[1’28]3
She tells her love while half asleep[4’19]4
Mid-Winter Waking Stirring suddenly from long hibernation[1’36]5
Intercession in Late October How hard the year dies: no frost yet[6’23]Les chansons des roses[17’10]6
En une seule fleur C’est pourtant nous qui t’avons proposé[2’20]7
Contre qui, rose[3’18]8
De ton rêve trop plein[2’14]9
La rose complète J’ai une telle conscience de ton[4’43]10
Dirait-on Abandon entouré d’abandon[4’35]with Morten Lauridsen (piano)
11
I will lift up mine eyes[3’14]12
O come, let us sing unto the Lord[3’22]with Andrew Lumsden (organ)
13
Ave, dulcissima Maria[7’04]with Morten Lauridsen (finger cymbals)
Nocturnes[14’39]14
Sa nuit d’été Si je pourrais avec mes mains brûlantes[3’31]with Morten Lauridsen (piano)
15
Soneto de la noche Cuando yo muera quiero tus manos en mis ojos[5’56]16
Sure on this shining night[5’12]with Morten Lauridsen (piano)

While their recording of Eric Whitacre (CDA67543) continues its chart-topping run on both sides of the Atlantic, Stephen Layton and Polyphony have returned to the studio and put down a second disc devoted to the choral music of Whitacre’s compatriot Morten Lauridsen.

The popular cycles Mid-Winter Songs and Les chansons des roses (the final number of which, Dirait-on, caused something of a publishing sensation on its first appearance) are joined by four premiere recordings: two early Psalm settings, and two new works written during the preparations for this recording.

Performances from Layton and his portfolio of musicians are every bit as polished as we have come to expect. Polyphony is joined by the Britten Sinfonia for the Mid-Winter Songs, Andrew Lucas for the organ-accompanied Psalm, and the composer himself—proving Lauridsen to be a master of sympathetic pianism (as well as a digital cymbalist).