Press
P R E S S
“A new album of choral music by Bernat Vivancos has a ghostly beauty, almost anyone can appreciate its beauty.
That is precisely the direction in which modern classical music should be going.”
THE ECONOMIST – Callum Williams 2014
“If I did select CDs of the the year Bernat Vivancos’ Blanc – Choral Works would be up for a prize, as would Neu Records in the label of the year category. Read more…”
Bob Shingleton, ON AN OVERGROWN PATH
“An extremely refined harmonic craft and formal treatment.”
Vicent Minguet, SONOGRAMA MAGAZINE
Best Album of the Year 2011
440ClÀSSICA
Best Album of the Year 2011
CATALUNYA MÚSICA (CATALAN NATIONAL RADIO)
“An impeccable performance of a capella choral works by Bernat Vivancos, a composer who possesses a vast knowledge of choral music and is blessed with great creative abilities. (…) Music that strikes a perfect understanding between images, colours, devotion and translucence, on the border between echo and memory.”
Carlos Sandúa, RNE RADIO CLÁSICA. SPANISH NATIONAL RADIO
“Blanc contains a work of extraordinary delicacy and high quality, in a style reminiscent of Arvo Pärt, James McMillan and Olivier Messiaen, and which definitely proves that Spanish contemporary works are at the forefront of the current European scene. Contemplative, transcendent music.”
Marcel Soleda, TRITO EDICIONS
“This album is a treasure. A work of art in every sense: from the wonderful music contained and the sublime performances, to the exquisite edition, almost bibliophile, and the sound treatment, beyond the pure sound craftsmanship. It’s impossible to speak in such a short space of all the beauties of this unusual recording, spotless, amazing.”
Xavier Chavarria, REVISTA MUSICAL CATALANA
“The quality shines out over the singing on this recording. Musically, full of images, aesthetically, uninhibited, and in form, like a magnificent ploychoral stained glass window. Its essence reflects references of the finest traditions, from Palestrina to Britten, through Purcell coming to rest in the French taste, refined, impressionist, making it a kind of Catalan Arvo Pärt. And the perfume is so suggestive that one is reluctant to wander through the sources treasuring the chemical composition of Vivancos work, from which a Gaudí-like naturalist architecture flows.”
Àlex Robles, CATMUSICA
“The label Neu, in two CDs, presents a selection of attractive choral works which show a number of characteristic ingredients of Vivancos’ aesthetic search and musical language. A search that discovers in sound itself – in its textures, in modality, in colour – a form of beauty, of contemplation, at times highly expressive, and with an enviable inner intensity. His knowledge of choral language is manifest in works such as “Nigra Sum”, “Messe aux sons des cloches”, and popular songs treated in sensitive fashion.”
Jorge de Persia, CULTURAS. LA VANGUARDIA
“The Latvian Radio Choir signs this wonderful project with a ravishing sound and a portentous performance, overwhelming.”
Urko Sangroniz, DIVERDI MAGAZINE
“L’écoute de ce double cd a étée une révélation pour moi. Jusqu’à présent je ne connaissais que le spectralisme pur et dur. Bernat Vivancos a trouvé le moyen de faire usage des tendances spectralistes en les faisant évoluer ensemble avec une vocalité exemplaire. Les éléments de la tradition vocale restent intacts: tonalité, modalité, harmonie, mélodie, linéarité, mais tout est baigné dans une densité spectrale non agressive, agréable à chanter. Présentée de cette façon, les chanteurs aimeront certainement cette musique de notre temps. Chez lui tout se passe dans une liberté apparante que l’on associe souvent à un cadre religieux. En tout cas, je situe Vivancos – mutatis mutandis – dans la lignée de Messiaen et Macmillan…”
Vic Nees, BELGIAN RADIO AND TELEVISION CHOIR
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