Ars Nova are, as usual, fully in command of both early and recent styles: this is a sparkling, thought-provoking recording of great originality.

This recording offers spiritual revelation and sonic pleasure from start to finish.

Most impressive is Jackson’s L’Homme armé, an antiwar meditation deriving from a 15th-century song, and a harmonic triumph.

Paul Hillier, the venturesome director of (among other things) the Danish chorus Ars Nova Copenhagen, provides a personal guide through the recent works on this lovely new release. But in truth, you don’t need his written testimony.

It is no surprise that the virtuosic singers in Theatre of Voices and Ars Nova Copenhagen are often to be found in early music ensembles.

Hillier’s repertoire choices are bold and beautiful... The performances are outstanding... These days it seems that everything Hillier touches turns to gold and this album is the latest that benefits from his Midas touch. Brilliant singing, innovative repertoire choices and sterling sound quality make this everything you can possibly want from a Christmas album, or any other album for that matter.

It would be hard to imagine a lovelier Christmas presentation than this one... This rare jewel will brighten your holiday season with its faithful reflection of the joy of Christmas.

Paul Hillier always presents something unique (...) the program returns considerable rewards both in the exceptional quality of the ensemble singing and in the interesting repertoire.

Ars Nova Copenhagen sings with chaste but warm tone, smooth blend, tonal precision, and alert musicality under the leadership of Paul Hillier. This is an album that should be of strong interest to fans of new choral music from off the beaten path.

Anne Boyd’s “As I Crossed a Bridge of Dreams”…grabs the attention. Based on the whole-tone scale, the music moves very slowly in deliciously textured, monumental chords that show this world-class choir at its best.

Performance *****    Sound *****

This deeply moving performance lives up to the promise of the two previous discs in the series covering Schütz' Historia, narratives on the Birth, Passion and Resurrection of Christ. Schütz' music is profoundly simple.

Adam Riis [in Weihnachtshistorie] has a fresh and free tone and convincingly conveys the changing course of the narrative. (...) The various singers and instrumentalists in the Interludes are uniformly excellent and the overall result is delightful in every way. (...) The evangelist in this work [Auferstehungshistorie] is Johan Linderoth whose subtle freedom and perfect articulation of the text are close to the ideal. The other performers maintain a similar standard. Overall this is a disc which gives immense satisfaction.

Both discs centre around one of Taverner's Masses. Both are remarkable in various ways. (...) Paul Hillier is the chief conductor of Ars Nova Copenhagen since 2003 and therefore it is probably not very surprising that the sound of the ensemble is very much alike that of comparable English ensembles. Fortunately it produces a more releaxed sound than, for instance, the Tallis Scholars. Also they have avoided the dominance of the upper voices, which is a deficiency of some ensembles of this kind. I am very impressed by the beautiful and stylish singing of Ars Nova Copenhagen, which suits the repertoire on these discs very well. The passages which are particularly striking in regard to text expression are excellently realised. The diction is very good, and the acoustical circumstances suitable to the repertoire. 

It is an excellent performance of an intriguing program.

The Danish vocal group Ars Nova, under the baton of Paul Hillier and with the percussion ensemble Percurama, perform masterpieces of minimalism by the Californian composer Terry Riley. They generate a deeply mesmeric ambience as the note C, played on one of eight marimbas, pulses through slower-moving improvisations at six hits a second or 20,000 an hour. The arm aches thinking about it. Sung chords form and reform, swell and die, like shifting sands as the vocalists, using not words but “sacred syllables”, take up new motifs in order. Each performance is different but this one achieves a gripping, transcendent beauty. (Rick Jones) 

Per Flügelschlag ins Totenreich

Es reibt sich dafür umso mehr in großflächigen Dissonanzen, imitatorischen Verschiebungen quer durch die Stimmen, Glissandi in alle Himmelsrichtungen, äußert sich mitunter in Flüstern, Klatschen, Rezitieren, empörtem Schreien. Durchaus auch eine Herausforderung für die Interpreten. Vollkommen vibratolos, gläsern, intonatorisch absolut naturrein und zum Sterben schön wandeln die zwölf Sängerinnen und Sänger durch dieses Tal.

Artistic quality: 10 / Sound quality: 10

For a music critic, unconditional praise for a recording can be a dangerous thing--but what else can you do when you hear something that's unquestionably among the best in its class?