Reviewed by Steven Whitehead

Your reviewer has a quibble over this release but before we come to it let us start by singing its praises. The soprano Synve Lundgren was born in Vienna but has a Norwegian father; the alto Johanna Fernholm is Finnish; the two of them sing very well together, as soloists and in duets. Christian Gurtner on flute, Wolfgang Kogert on organ and Marcus Vorzellner on piano offer restrained accompaniment. The style is best described as parlour music, which in some contexts can be meant sarcastically but here I use it as a description: this sounds like a group of like-minded friends making music together. I was glad to listen in. Some tunes would be recognised by us all: "Silent Night", for example or Luther's "Paie Cantiones" but the words are a puzzle as they are sung in (deep breath) Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian, Icelandic and Danish. And here lies my quibble: I cannot match up the lyrics with the track-listing. What I suspect has happened is that the different Scandinavian words have been translated into German (this being an Austrian record label) and then into English. As a listener this bothered me not a jot but as a reviewer I was hoping to impart more information to you. Still, the bottom line is that this was a very pleasant recital and makes a refreshing change from the same old tunes we hear on far too many Christmas releases.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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