Genesis says, “…and God called the light day, and the darkness he called night.” Light means beginning and end, is our central elixir of life and also an essential phenomenon of the Christian religion. Just think of the “Light of the Trinity”, of the many metaphors of light with which Christ was provided, when Paul, for example, in his letter to the Corinthians speaks of the “Light of Christ” which we carry within us, or of the request for eternal light for the dead, which is formulated in the “Lux aeterna” of the Mass for the Dead.
In the programme of this CD, these aspects of light are considered compositional visions of sound, ranging from medieval Gregorian music to contemporary choral works. Gregorian traces can also be clearly seen in some works (e.g. Byrd, Mendelssohn, Whitacre).
The Linz Jeunesse Choir was founded in 1983 by Wolfgang Mayrhofer as a chamber choir. The members are students and graduates of the Adalbert Stifter Gymnasium in Linz, although there is always room for lateral entrants. From the very beginning, the choir has dedicated itself to the broad spectrum of sophisticated a cappella music of various genres and styles. Depending on musical needs, the choirmaster Wolfgang Mayrhofer chooses the instrumentation and the size of the choir. For musical reasons, cooperations with other choirs such as the Mozart Choir, Hard Choir, Cencentus musicalis and renowned orchestras such as the Bruckner Orchestra Linz, the Lower Austrian Tonkünstler Orchestra, the Göttingen Symphony Orchestra are nothing out of the ordinary.
