Esenvalds, E.: Northern Lights

   in Choir & Organ (Mar, 2015)
Latvian composer Eriks Esenvalds goes from strength to strength, if the evidence of this exemplary recording is anything to go by. Two years as a Fellow-Commoner at Trinity College, Cambridge (2011–13) coincided with a development of his musical language towards greater simplicity, with diatonicism and homophonic textures dominating. The Choir of Trinity College and director Stephen Layton were responsible for several of the pieces on this well chosen and beautifully performed programme. The 16 works include O salutaris hostia (one of the composer’s most celebrated pieces, here recorded in its arrangement for full choir) and (my particular favourites) his setting of the poet Sara Teasdale: The New Moon, with its shimmering …