The venerable
Knabenchor Hannover
("
Hannover Boys' Choir
") has seen many of its recordings of the 20th century reissued, thanks to the distinctive sound cultivated by its longtime director,
Heinz Hennig
. The choir specialized in
Schütz
and
Bach
, but its repertory broadened during the later years of
Hennig
's tenure. These
Stravinsky
recordings were made in 1991 and 1993 (and reissued in 2024 by
Hänssler Classic
) and may not have been intended as a single album, but the program is one of its strongest features;
experienced a religious awakening in the 1920s and composed a good deal of sacred music over the next two decades. It is instructive to have a whole album of them, and if the
Symphony of Psalms
from the 1930s is common enough,
Babel
, from 1944, and the
Mass
of 1948 are not. A major draw here is that, although the sound of a boychoir in the
is unusual, it is what
actually had in mind. Only later did he agree to performances by women if no children's choir was available. The boys give the work a rather bracing sound that is intriguing. (There is no word on where the tenors and basses came from, and in general, the booklet is rather sketchy, although all texts are included.)
, with a biblical text describing the Tower of Babel, is given in both the original English and in German. The
may be the highlight here; it inventively weaves repetitive homophonic passages suggestive of Orthodox chant into
's neoclassic textures, and the children's choir works very well. An intriguing collection of great interest to Stravinskians and others. ~ James Manheim