As Jean Christensen makes clear in his chapter 'Lyricism with a Dramatic Nerve' in The Music of Per Norgard (Scolar Press: 1996), choral music covers a greater variety of means and performer abilities than any other category in the composer's output; a range made clear by the present selection.
Singe die Garten, mein Herz (1975, also the closing section of the seminal Third Symphony) explores the melodic dimension of Norgard's 'infinity series' with a quiet ecstasy, while the timeless simplicity of Winter Hymn and deceptive naivety of Maya danser are qualities found throughout his oeuvre. The impact of the Swiss schizophrenic artist Adolf Wolfli on Norgard's thinking is evident in Dream Songs (1981), where the polarity of concord and discord, in this thrice-told tale of childhood revelation, is mirrored by the drum's musical and dramatic cross-rhythm to the chorus. The Wolfli-Lieder directly contrast good and evil, although the tranquillity of 'Abendlied' is hardly unruffled, while the demonic forces of this 'Hallelujah' chorus dance merrily into silence. As in the Latin settings, Norgard moves between lightness and dark with an ease characteristic of his mature musical thinking. That he could follow the many-layered complexity of his Fifth Symphony with the intuitive freedom of I Hear the Rain (1992) is further testament to a creative mind which has 'earned the right' to stylistic freedom.
The excellent Ars Nova Vocal Ensemble has been admirably recorded in a sympathetic acoustic. A pity that the 18 seconds' discrepancy between listed and actual playing time was not used to put a greater space between works, but this is a small blemish on a disc that all enterprising choirs and listeners should investigate.'