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Lukaszewski - Choral Works - BBC Music Magazine

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This disc covers works composed during the period from 1992 (when Paweł Łukaszewski was just 24) to 2007, with the series of seven Advent Antiphons written between 1995-99 as the centrepiece.

Łukaszewski has worked extensively in Chile as well as in his naïve Poland, and was nominated as Man of the Year by the American Biographical Institute in 2000, but one of his greatest champions, to whom the Nunc Dimittis is dedicated, is Stephen Layton, here in Britain.  Layton’s affinity with this radiant, accessible music is clear as he guides the Trinity College Choir, which sings with passion and purity throughout this programme.

Łukaszewski employs what he describes as ‘renewed tonality’ and has been compared with ‘Holy Minimalists’ like Pärt, Górecki and Tavener, but in truth the similarities are slight.  Indeed, here and there is the Antiphons, notably O Sapientia and O Radix Jesse, it is the American Minimalists who are evoked, but even these echoes are faint.  Łukaszewski’s language is personal and individual, and is perhaps most directly illustrated by Ave Maria (1992) where simple, conventional harmonies are used in unexpected ways.


Barry Witherden

Lukaszewski - Choral Works
Hyperion Records CDA67639