Lukaszewski: Sacred Choral Works

Album review

Paweł Łukaszewski (born 1968) is possibly the most-performed contemporary composer from Poland. His spiritual choral works are performed by both professional and amateur choirs around the world. Paweł Łukaszewski’s output has a significant position in Great Britain where his works are performed and premiered by renowned London and Cambridge choral ensembles. This new album includes several world premiere recordings from the Polish master.

Łukaszewski is a prolific contemporary composer whose entire output (which includes some chamber and orchestral works) can be described as profoundly spiritual, with almost all of his compositions overtly sacred. In his work he continues a centuries-old Sacred Music tradition of his native Poland, presently being one of its most prominent creators.

This album, much of it containing world premiere recordings, presents settings of psalms, liturgical, evangelical, and religious texts. The first nine works, all for SATB choir, were composed between 2012 and 2019, with the last two dating 2009 and 2004 respectively. The last two works are for two a cappella choirs, and most are commissions.

Łukaszewski’s style has been described as relating to, or emerging from, the neo-medieval, neo-tonal spiritual tradition of Henryk Górecki, Arvo Pärt and John Tavener. The composer himself describes himself working in the style of a "renewed tonality". The works on this recording present a comprehensive portrait of the composer’s vocal writing: accomplished, technically masterful and mature, with euphonious choral sonorities and dramatic contrasts achieved via dynamic, rhythmic, and harmonic shifts, a variety of emotional states from calm and peaceful to pleading, yearning, and agitated, bold harmonic progressions, and above all, luscious, melodic, and vibrant choral writing that respects its texts. © Ondine