Lux - Nidarosdomens jentekor & TrondheimSolistene [Blu-ray]

Acquiring life skills during a challenging, fragile phase of life — learning to belong, to feel seen and included, learning to build friendships — all of this lies at the core of the Nidaros Cathedral Girls' Choir's mission.

The Requiem in Andrew Smith's version, commissioned by the choir, is loosely based on the Roman Catholic mass for the dead. Several of the texts of the traditional Requiem Mass have been replaced, however, with biblical references to the tragic fate of children, reflecting the all-too-frequent conflicts of today in which the young are innocent victims. The musical material in the Requiem takes its inspiration from Gregorian chant. Melodic fragments of the ancient requiem mass can be heard in the background. Trygve Seim's improvising saxophone makes up an integral part of the whole, yet lives a life of its own in close companionship with the singers and Ståle Storløkken on organ.

The palette is expanded with the glorious strings of TrondheimSolistene in Ståle Kleiberg's Hymn to Love and The Light (with Petra Bjørkhaug, organ). These works add dimensions of faith, hope and love. And light too, when all seems dark. In life there are moments to treasure, and challenges to overcome. In the words of Helge Torvund: The light you need exists.

Immersive Audio is a sonic sculpture that you can literally move around and relate to spatially; surrounded by music you can move about in the aural space and choose angles, vantage points and positions. Dolby Atmos and the Auro-3D on this Pure Audio Blu-ray delivers a new standard in immersion, fully enveloping the audience in a cocoon of life-like audio. Recorded in discrete 11.1 at DXD resolution.

Recording date: October 2017, January and May 2018
Location: Nidaros Cathedral, Trondheim, Norway