Album: Strauss, A Capella Motets (Naive)

The vocal demands of Strauss’s a capella motets are such that what is needed is a choir of Arabellas, Composers, Bacchuses and Mandrykas, hence they are rarely performed.

Joined by soloists Jane Archibald, Dagmar Peckova, Eric Soklossa and Robert Gleadow, the Latvian Radio Choir and Accentus deliver an impeccably tuned Op 62 under Laurence Equilbey, but sound understandably strained in Op 34. Most successful is “Traumlicht”, scored for male voices and a rare example of Strauss in less-is-more mode.