Santa Ratniece: Vigilia del Mattino Latvian Radio Choir

• Santa Ratniece (b. 1977): Vigilia del Mattino:
• 1Ratniece: Vigilia del Mattino10:17
• War Sum Up - Music. Manga. Machines:
• 2Ratniece: War Sum Up - Music. Manga. Machines: I.01:09
• 3Ratniece: War Sum Up - Music. Manga. Machines: II.06:10
• 4Ratniece: War Sum Up - Music. Manga. Machines: III.03:19
• 5Ratniece: War Sum Up - Music. Manga. Machines: IV.02:50
• 6Ratniece: War Sum Up - Music. Manga. Machines: V.02:54
• 7Ratniece: War Sum Up - Music. Manga. Machines: VI.03:04
• 8Ratniece: War Sum Up - Music. Manga. Machines: VII.04:56
• Fuoco celeste:
• 9Ratniece: Fuoco celeste13:56
• Nada el layli:
• 10Ratniece: Nada el layli13:29
• Total Runtime01:02:04

Info for Santa Ratniece: Vigilia del Mattino

Album contains world premiere recordings of Latvian composer Santa Ratniece sung by the Latvian Radio Choir - one of the leading choirs in the world today.

Santa Ratniece (1977) is an unusual personality among Latvian composers – a traveller and researcher whose music cannot be confused with the compositions of any other composer. Her music is processual; it is music in which time expands like an illuminated horizon, revealing infinity. Her world of sound contains layers of various depth and reaches into the stratosphere, but it also encompasses microvibrations and sensitivity.

Ratniece often composes works that are linked to a specific geographical area and natural phenomena. Here we find the Himalayas, deep waters, pristine alpine lakes, melting ice, aromas, the warmth and coolness of air. But her compositions do not paint pictures or result in mere sound paintings. Instead, the fluidity of her music turns these phenomena into events in which the encounter with nature has become a spiritual experience.

Regarding Ratniece's music, conductor Sigvards Klava has said that "instead of notes, here the staves often contain sounds that can be impossible to incorporate into the traditional temperament system. But in spite of the very complicated score, which is often difficult to read, she does not compose with the intent to do technical tricks; she does not try to concoct or construct the composition. She composes the sound of the World. This music is so ethereal, so enigmatic – halfway between the singer's body and soul."

The fragments for the multimedia choral opera WAR SUM UP: MUSIC. MANGA. MACHINES featured on this album was an international collaboration performed by the Latvian Radio Chamber Singers under the direction of conductor Kaspars Putnins together with director Kirsten Dehlholm and the Hotel Pro Forma theatre group from Denmark.

"Never does her music lack the spiritual and emotional charge we have come to expect from composers from her country." (Gramophone Magazine)

Latvian Radio Choir
Jekaterina Suvorova, harp (track 1)
Dārta Paldiņa, soprano (track 1)
Laura Štoma, soprano (track 1)
Gilbert Nouno, electronics (track 2)
Ieva Ezeriete, soprano (tracks 2, 3, 10)
Ēriks Kiršfelds, cello (track 4)
Ilze Konovalova, alto (track 6)
Guna Šnē, cello (track 9)
Ensemble Sarband (track 10)
Sigvards Kļava, conductor (tracks 1, 9)
Kaspars Putniņš, conductor (tracks 2-8, 10)

The Latvian Radio Choir (LRC)
ranks among the top professional chamber choirs in Europe and its refined taste for musical material, fineness of expression and vocal of unbelievably immense compass have charted it as a noted brand on the world map. Since 1992, LRC has two conductors – Sigvards Kļava, Music Director and Principal Conductor; and Kaspars Putniņš.

The repertoire of LRC ranges from the Renaissance music to the most sophisticated scores by modern composers; and it could be described as a sound laboratory – the singers explore their skills by turning to the mysteries of traditional singing, as well as to the art of quartertone and overtone singing and other sound production techniques. The choir has established a new understanding of the possibilities of a human voice; one could also say that the choir is the creator of a new choral paradigm: every singer is a distinct individual with his or her own vocal signature and roles in performances. The expertise of singers has made LRC a remarkably flexible ensemble able to deal with vocal and instrumental music, as well as with opera performances, multi-media projects, intimate a capella talks, and theatrical shows where singers can express themselves as soloists and talented actors.

e choir has participated in the top international musical forums in Salzburg and Montpellier, the Baltic Sea Festival, Klangspuren Festival, La Musica, Ultima, the Venice Biennale, White Light Festival USA, Soundstreams in Canada; and performed in renowned concert halls such as the Concertgebouw and Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam, Konzerthaus in Berlin, and Cité de la Musique in Paris, Lincoln Center in New York and Dresden Frauenkirche. LRC has successfully worked with many outstanding guest conductors, including Riccardo Muti, Heinz Holliger, Lars Ulrik Mortensen, Stephen Layton, Tõnu Kaljuste, James Wood, and Esa-Pekka Salonen, among others. The Latvian Radio Choir records on a regular basis. Every season, three or four new CDs appear in collaboration with such labels as Hyperion Records, BIS, GB Records, Ondine, and Naïve.

Sigvards Kļava
is one of the most outstanding Latvian conductors, also a professor of conducting and producer, music director of the Latvian Radio Choir since 1992. As a result of Sigvards Kļava’s steady efforts, the Latvian Radio Choir has become an internationally recognized, vocally distinctive collective, where each singer possesses a creative individuality. Under Sigvards’ guidance, the choir has recorded a number of choral works by little known or completely forgotten composers of the past, as well as formed a friendly collaboration with a number of notable Latvian composers. Sigvards Kļava is a professor at the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music. Kļava is a multiple winner of the Latvian Grand Music Award. He has performed at the Concertgebouw and Muziekgebouw of Amsterdam, Berliner Konzerthaus and Philharmonie, Théâtre des Champs- Élysées in Paris, Berwaldhallen in Stockholm, Dresdner Frauenkirche as well as in the New York Lincoln Centre.

This album contains no booklet.