O Listen! to the Music of Uros Krek & Else Marie Pade
Uroš Krek and Else Marie Pade are likely to be unknown to most listeners outside their respective countries of Slovenia and Denmark, but that is just one attraction of this 2025 release by the always impressive Danish National Vocal Ensemble. The notes to the physical version (recommended) suggest that "little might seem to connect the music of [Krek and Pade] apart from the rough proximity of their birth-years," but notes several common factors, including the intriguing one that both worked at their national radio stations. The combination of the two composers is uniquely persuasive here. Both are rooted in a traditional, largely tonal style but depart sharply from it with dramatic effect; they may write tonally or move into more dissonant sounds, all in a consistent style. Krek's Three Autumn Songs, which are in English, were intended as a response to the violence that consumed the countries of the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Perhaps the most striking work here is Pade's Maria, one of the few sacred works to make use of electronics. Those electronics provide quite subtle accompaniment, at times suggesting church bells, to an ensemble of soprano, bass-baritone, a spoken-world choir, and seven trombones. The piece, in Latin, has considerable subtlety, with many semi-static passages but a climbing soprano line that is quite difficult and beautifully handled by Anna Miilmann. The work has at once a chant-like and deeply contemporary quality, and it is well worth hearing. The music is well worth hearing again, but the performances by the small (18-member) Danish National Vocal Ensemble under Martina Batič are going to be hard to exceed. The recording at a Danish Radio studio, with the choir in circular formation around the microphones, is absolutely top-notch and should attract audiophiles. James Manheim