Description
'Tchaka' - that's a traditional stew from Haiti, and just like in a good stew, the Singknaben der St. Ursenkathedrale Solothurn, under the direction of Tobias Stückelberger, present a diverse mixture of varied musical influences and cultures on their new album. With a tradition dating back over 1200 years, the Singknaben are considered the oldest boys' choir in Switzerland. Starting from their church tradition, the album begins with romantic motets and psalm settings by Praulinš, Mendelssohn and Bruckner, and leads through some choral favourites such as Fauré's 'Cantique de Jean Racine' to arrangements of Swiss folk songs and works from the Solothurn region such as the 'Heimetvogel' (Bird of Home) and the men's choir work 'Terre Jurassienne'. The programme continues northwards with contemporary works from Estonia (Tormis) and Finland (Mäntyjärvi and Makaroff). In the arrangement of 'The Code' by Nemo - as in the album itself - a wide variety of pop music styles come together. The album closes with farewell songs that are not always peaceful, including Schubert's 'Gesang der Geister über den Wassern', accompanied by low strings. In addition to the high artistic performance of the choirboys, the album impresses with its selection of works, which, despite their diversity, form a large thematic framework, and especially with the specially written arrangements, recorded for the first time, with which the choirboys themselves contribute a piece to the choral tradition.