Esa-Pekka Salonen choral music

Einojuhani Rautavaara, who died in 2016, was one of Esa-Pekka Salonen’s teachers in Helsinki and this late-afternoon concert juxtaposes choral works by the two men. English conductor Nicholas Chalmers joins the BBC Singers for a programme of music set to texts that range from the Mass to Dante (2014’s Iri da iri). Rautavaara’s Our Joyful’st Feast sets English words with glorious results while his Missa a Capella (2011) builds on an earlier setting of the Credo from 1972. The concert opens with two songs setting the poetry of Ann Jäderlund, music of great sensuality that hearkens back to the counterpoint of Palestrina.