Jennefelt is a very active contributor to contemporary
vocal music with operas and many choral works in his portfolio.
The seven pieces comprising Jennefelt's Villarosa
Sequence are designed to function just as well individually
as when performed as a single work. They are for unaccompanied
chorus and call for the most exalted levels of virtuosity. Four
are for mixed choir, one for male choir, one for female choir
and one sequence for solo soprano.
Jennefelt's skill and sympathy are never in doubt
and must surely be attributed to the years he spent as a singer
in Eric Ericsson's chamber choir. He knows his creative craft
as an insider.
The 32 strong choir sing in their own church
so they must be used to the warming resonant bloom that adds a
softened consonant focus to the listening experience. The music
is curvaceous, sensitive to dynamics from barely heard ppp
to triple forte rafter-shaking (sample the Vinamintra Elitavi,
tr. 7). It is naturally singable music. No violence is done to
the traditions of Scandinavian a capella singing. Still
these are resourceful pieces with a palette that admits of chugging
and pecking word patterns, deconstruction and refraction of syllables,
plainchant overtones, ecstatic harmonic clashes amid singing of
the Howellsian largest-scale. There is too velvet-toned lyrical
invention and jubilant exaltation modelled on Rosenberg's writing
in the Fourth Symphony and The Isle of Bliss. It is meditative
and prayerful even in operatic exclamation (tr.5 Claviante
brilioso). There are also strong echoes of Sisask and Tormis
especially Tormis in what I like to think of his 'work' songs
- the equivalent of the waulking songs of the Gaelic North-West
of Scotland.
Another triumphant choral CD from Sweden. I will
hope to hear these pieces sung in choral competitions. Dramatic,
prayerful, meditative music infused with vibrant light and granitic
vigour. The piece ends in an harmonically enriched cocoon of Bluebird-like
vowel sounds just as it began.
Rob Barnett
Jeanette Köhn
(sop)