My CD Choice - Richard Baker
Many people look to their music to relieve the pressures of the modern world, and it's remarkable
how much music of just the right kind for this purpose has come, in recent times, from the Baltic
Countries. The Estonian Arvo Part is perhaps the most famous of a group of composers who have found
in the church music of the past a springboard into new sounds to console us in times of uncertainty.
Similarly, the Latvian, Rihards Dubra started writing religious pieces in secret during the years
of Soviet domination, and there are some very beautiful examples on this disc from the Cambridge
Chorale. Under the expert leadership of Michael Kibblewhite they also offer Barber and Rachmaninov,
and three examples of space-age mood-music which share the other-worldly peace of Dubra's work.