Vasks: Laudate Dominum

Peteris Vasks’ choral works are a balm for our troubled times, their style often recalling the music of Arvo Pärt. The agonizingly beautiful “Da pacem, Domine” is a powerful cry for help that ebbs and flows between resignation and defiance, while “Mein Herr und mein Gott” is a breathtaking call to God, its expansive, uplifting scoring often unbearably poignant. “Laudate Dominum,” a powerful, slow-moving organ-and-choir anthem, stands as a musical monument to Christianity, while “Prayer,” its words by Mother Teresa, rails against injustice, but offers a glimpse of hope in the spiritual darkness, too. It’s all so beautifully performed.