Latvian Radio Choir Daugava

''Daugava'' is the World Premiere recording of the work of the same name by Martins Brauns by the Latvian Radio Choir, conducted by Sigvards Klava. The album is dedicated to the centenary of Latvian State and the Song and Dance festival tradition that is at the core of Latvian cultural identity.

Every four years, a choir of approximately 35000 singers gather at the Mezaparks Grand Bandstand in Riga to perform at the Latvian Song and Dance Festival. 'Saule, Perkons, Daugava' (Sun, Thunder, Daugava), the final track of this album, has been firmly cemented in the core repertoire of the festival. The festival is such a unique event that it has been included on the UNESCO list of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.

''Daugava'' by poet the Rainis and composer Martins Brauns has great cultural and historical value. The work is closely linked with the birth of the Latvian state in the early 20th century as well as with the country's path towards the restoration of its independence at the end of the 20th century. Remarkably, ''Sun, Thunder, Daugava'' was adopted as the anthem of the Catalonian independence movement.

Latvian Radio Choir, with its regular appearances in the world's most prestigious concert halls, festivals and concert series, as well as well received albums for Ondine, Hyperion Records, Deutsche Grammophon, ECM, BIS and Naïve and SKANI labels, has become one of the world's leading choirs.

''There is, in fact, something extraordinary about Latvian choirs: they sing as though their very lives depend on it, and when they are singing Latvian music their immediate connection with the language makes this even more apparent. There is both Nordic clarity and Slavic profundity to be heard in the sound of a Latvian choir, and there is also what I might call a poetic sense, an instinctive knowledge of how to phrase.''

Gramophone

Also available: Nature and the Soul, LMIC054 The Fruit of Silence, LMIC039