Music review - the works of Morten Lauridsen

Morten Lauridsen is fast becoming one of the most well known contemporary American composers of classical choral music, and his success is well-earned. I recently picked up Lux Aeterna, a collection of several of his works performed by the Los Angeles Master Chorale under the direction of Paul Salamunovich (RCM). Recorded in 1998, this disc contains world premiere recordings of several of these works, not surprising since Lauridsen was composer-in-residence with the chorale at the time. His music reminds me of Randall Thompson and Benjamin Britten. Though these similarities blend, his secular music tends to lean in Britten’s direction, while the pieces set to sacred text more have the languid and ethereal quality of Thompson (or Britten’s A Boy is Born, for that matter), relying on harmonic suspension to build the tension in the piece. The Lux Aeterna, set to five sacred texts that all involve light, is both outstanding and beautiful. Fans of Arvo Pärt who occasionally find themselves craving a major chord or two will love this piece (I’ll have to do a review of Pärt – to my mind one of the most important composers of the 20^th century – at a later date). Lauridsen’s skill is best exemplified by the second movement of the Les Chansons des Roses, a nocturne entitled "Contre Qui, Rose". A setting of a French Rilke poem (as are all the Chansons), this piece has a melancholy beauty that rivals Thompson's Alleluia or Pärt's Te Deum, though it is more intricate than the first and less austere than the last. With these comparisons, it is easy to see why some have labeled him a mystic. If you enjoy choral music, I recommend this disc; the technical skill of the chorale and orchestra is high (in contrast, unfortunately, to the particular recording of Thompson's works that I have), and Lauridsen's writing is enjoyable, complex, and at times deeply moving.