This program of choral songs by the eccentric Danish composer Rued Langgaard was originally released as a CD by marco polo in 1997 when dacapo’s catalog was being issued here on that label. The collection of 22 a cappella choral works was warmly received by Henry Fogel in Fanfare 21:3. It is now reissued on the dacapo label—again distributed by Naxos—in SACD.

Fogel found the works “restrained, deeply felt, and inventive” and the performances “stunning.” I could not agree more. I was less than enthusiastic about this composer’s symphonies when recently reviewing the dacapo set of Dausgaard performances, finding many of them self-indulgent, derivative, lacking in consistent invention, and deficient in coherent formal structure. None of these criticisms apply to the moving and beautifully crafted works here. Clearly, the predominantly tranquil texts that Langgaard set—full of images of nature and tenderness on the one hand and religious devotion on the other—or the very different compositional demands of choral writing (or likely both) allowed him to mine a vein of lyricism, gentle longing, devotion, and nostalgic regret that is only apparent sporadically in his symphonic output.

As my esteemed colleague also points out, there is a sense of both the old and the new in these works, drawing, as they do, on centuries of choral tradition. It is an effect not unlike that found in the choral works of Vaughan Williams—though the sound and style itself is quite different—with the old-fashioned quality of the works genially complemented by modern harmony and expressiveness. Actually, these songs bring to mind Brahms’s folk-inspired choral works at times, with an occasional harmonic twist as reminder that these are works of the 20th century. This is particularly true of the later sacred works, more traditional pieces that one can imagine were written with his South Jutland cathedral choir in mind.