Lux Aeterna – ABC Classics Release Features Sydney Chamber Choir Performing The Music Of Stanhope

Lux Aeterna, is a new album of music by Australian composer Paul Stanhope, performed by the Sydney Chamber Choir and release on ABC Classics on 8 September 2017.

‘Lux Aeterna’ – ‘eternal light’, represents the struggle of light and darkness: an ancient concept, inspiring music-making for centuries. The album brings this search for light into the present day, setting texts from across cultures and ages: Arabic poetry, Old Testament verses, liturgical chants, and present-day words from Australia and South America.

Stanhope’s music is recorded here with the choir he has collaborated with over the past decade, Sydney Chamber Choir, resulting in a unique depth of understanding of Stanhope’s musical language and the text which he sets.

Paul Stanhope is an award-winning Sydney-based composer, former Musical Director of Sydney Chamber Choir and currently a Senior Lecturer in Composition at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney. Previous releases on the ABC Classics label include Songs for the Shadowland – an album of song cycles for combinations of voices and instruments.

Formed in 1975, the Sydney Chamber Choir, under the direction of Nicholas Routley, quickly established itself among Australia’s finest performers of Renaissance choral music, especially the works of Josquin des Prez. The choir also pioneered revitalising performances of Baroque masterpieces by Bach and Handel. At the same time, it began a program of commissioning music from Australian composers – a practice which flourished under the leadership of the choir’s second Musical Director, Paul Stanhope, and which continues today, with a record of 20 world premieres in the past 10 years.

The tracks: Paul Stanhope (1969–)

1. Fiant Luminaria/ 2. Agnus Dei / Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep/ 3. Lux Aeterna/ 4. Ubi Caritas/ 5. Lament to Saint Cecilia/ 6. The Land Is Healed. Ban.garay!/ Exile Lamentations – Three Choruses/ 7. Eykhah/ 8. Deserts of Exile/ 9. Lament/ 10. Cherubic Hymn

Sydney Chamber Choir/ Paul Stanhope conductor

Album available 8 September 2017
1CD | Digital Album | ABC 481 6296