Pärt: Stabat Mater, Magnificat, Da Pacem

Encompassing works by Arvo Pärt (Estonia), Pēteris Vasks (Latvia), and James MacMillan (a native of Scotland), this album charts the evolution of choral music in three regions of Northern Europe that saw the rise of a startling new language beginning in the 1980s. Its subsequent development has had far-reaching implications well beyond the staid confines of the house of worship or the serial techniques current at the time. The spiritual focus of this trio of trail-blazers resonates with many of today's composers, a dimension that has not escaped their listeners or, for that matter, Graham Ross, the enterprising director of music at Clare College, Cambridge.