JOACHIM RAFF (1822-1882): De Profundis for Chorus and Orchestra, Op. 141, Te Deum for Chorus and Orchestra, WoO 16, For Unaccompanied Chorus: Pater Noster, WoO 32, Ave Maria, WoO 33, 4 Marian Antiphons, WoO 27.

Description: The major work here is the 40-minute De Profundis of 1867, written during a period of a few years when the Catholic composer also wrote all of his unaccompanied choral works (all but two are recorded here). This charts a course from gloom and mourning to the joy and celebration of the finale's contrapuntally virtuosic double fugue. The direct, mostly homophonic, harmonically Lisztian Te Deum (1853) was written during Raff's period of study and work with Liszt. It's of some interest to note that Raff originally assigned opus numbers to the unaccompanied choral pieces but later decided not to have them published, perhaps fearing the clash between his reputation as a modern German Romantic composer and the reconfiguring of Italian Renaissance musical elements in these works. Karlstad Chamber Choir, Stockholm Singers; Bo Aurehl, Göteborg Opera Orchestra; Henrik Schaefer.