Credo

One could hardly ask for a better review than the one about Passía in the May issue of BBC Music Magazine, the best-selling magazine about classical music in the world. Composer and critic Calum MacDonald praises Haflidi Hallgrímsson’s composition highly and refers to it as ‘a modern religious masterpiece’. He enthusiastically recommends the CD and gives both performance and sound five stars. Read and be convinced!

Passía has been enthusiastically praised in a review in the classical channel of the Bavarian state radio (Bayerischer Rundfunk). Ursula Adamski-Störmer was delighted to have found modern music that speaks both to the mind and the heart. She said: “Passía is a gripping, contemplative composition, that combines many stylistic and technical features of contemporary music to make a strikingly dramatic and large-scale passion.” She also praised the musicians for their “musical precision and interpretative intensity” and predicted that Passía would be heard in ambitious passion concerts in the future. The review can be found here (in German).

The media in Finland have paid a good deal of attention to Passía. The CD was favourably reviewed in the state radio and in Helsingin Sanomat, the main newspaper, Jukka Isopuro wrote: “The work creates, especially in the beginning, a sense of an open horizon which the beautiful and accurate recording of the clear church acoustic emphasizes.” The church musician Markku Kilpiö is of the same opinion in Suomen Kuvalehti, a popular quality magazine: “The orchestra creates - without trying to avoid tonal elements and triads - visions and atmospheres in which the soloists and choir tell, with very few words, the story of the passion of Christ. Hallgrímskirkja in Reykjavík, the church where the work was premiered, was a central instrument for the composer. It surely is in this recording.” Finally, Kare Eskola, writing in the classical music magazine Rondo, mentioned the beautiful melodies of Passía and its colourful orchestration.

Haflidi Hallgrímsson´s Passía was referred to as ‘a Passion for our times’ in the programme CD Review on BBC 3, one of the world’s leading classical radio stations. It’s a great recognition to be featured in this weekly programme as only a fraction of the myriad new CDs on the market are reviewed there. In this particular programme the reviewers talked about two new CDs with music connected to Hallgrímur Pétursson’s Hymns of the Passion, Passía and a CD with soprano Magnea Tómasdóttir and organist Guðmundur Sigurðsson. The good Hallgrímur seems to be ‘in’ in Britain these weeks. In the end of March the Sunday Worship of BBC Radio 4 was a service from Hallgrímskirkja where the chamber choir Schola cantorum sang a few of the Hymns and the poet was introduced. The listeners of CD Review, on the other hand, were treated with two excerpts from Passía and heard this statement, among others, about its composer’s music: “Haflidi Hallgrímsson´s Cello Concerto had a great success at its Scottish premiere last month – and this major choral work – Passía, or Suffering – is characterized by those typically fastidious orchestral brushstrokes which paint a canvas both evocative and robustly abstract in its own right.”

Ondine is now beginning its international marketing and distribution of Passía. The fans of Hafliði Hallgrímsson’s masterpiece eagerly await the response of music lovers and critics around the world. Ondine has been very successful in the marketing of its recordings in past years and have received great acclaim and acknowledgement for its products. A few days ago, for instance, an Ondine CD with music by Latvian composer Peteris Vasks received the Cannes Classical Disc of the Year Award at the MIDEM international music convention 2004 in Cannes. It might interest readers to know that John Storgårds, the conductor and soloist in that recording, recently conducted Hafliði Hallgrímsson’s new cello concerto in much lauded concerts in Scotland. Check out Ondine’s website and read about Passía, the Vasks recording and other exciting CDs!

Finally, finally! Credo’s Opus 1 has seen the light of day. The CD containing Hafliði Hallgrímsson’s Passía has been released by the renowned Finnish recording company Ondine in close cooperation with Credo. We have been working on this project for two years and are delighted that our effort has now borne fruit. The CD will be distributed in Iceland by 12 Tónar, Iceland’s leading classical music store, and will be internationally marketed in the year 2004 by Ondine.

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