WOLFGANG RIHM (b.1952): 7 Passions-Texte for 6 Voices, Fragmenta passionis for Mixed Choir, Astralis (Über dis Linie III) for Small Choir, Cello and 2 Timpani.

Description: The Passions-Texte and Astralis are relatively recent works, and are substantially consonant, though tonally highly ambiguous, in a mood of transcendent meditativeness harking back to religious music of earlier centuries. The much earlier Fragmenta (1968) are much more experimental, a product of their time and of the composer's youthful exuberance, with extended vocal techniques overwriting a palimpsest of traditional motet forms. Latin, German-English texts. RIAS Chamber Choir; Hans-Christoph Rademann.