Light and Love: |New Vocal Works

Crossover projects are the hallmark of the Sonux Ensemble. Together with the jazz-saxophonist Stefan Kuchel and the Sirius Quartet, the young men’s choir performs contemporary works. The Quartet members describe themselves as artists of improvisation who break out of the conventional vocabulary of sound for a string quartet. Most pieces on this CD were written especially for the Sonux Ensemble, and thus composed to the singers’ strengths. The works recorded on this CD focus on the topics of light and love. The eponymous poem by Charles Anthony Silvestri that lends its title to the disc frames and connects the two topics. Silvestri wrote the text in 2012, exclusively for this project. Hans-Joachim Lustig came to know the poet through Eric Whitacre, whose Five Hebrew Love Songs are performed here in a presently unique version. The choir director was fortunate also in his cooperation with Paul Mealor: the Welsh composer became famous across the globe through his motet Ubi caritas et amor, which he wrote for the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton at Westminster Abbey on 29 April 2011, and who has also composed the lullaby for newly-born Prince George.