Joachim-Ernst Berendt, Rituals Of Transformation

The sounds are different. The singer is the same.

Music is an international language that can cross great divides. True, but with Rituals of Transformation Joachim-Ernst Berendt takes a slightly different approach. First, a fundament is identified that marries otherwise disparate cultures, rituals that celebrate the victory over death and prepare for the life thereafter. Both the requiem mass of the Christian church and the Yamantaka ritual share a Lacrimosa, a Sanctus and the vision of the lux Aeterna, the eternal light, Buddhism's "clear light of consciousness".

Gregorian Requiem: Habitat in Tabernaculo Tuo

Gregorian Requiem: Laetatus Sum

Gregorian Requiem: Subvenite Sancti Dei

Mozart Requiem: Introitus

Mozart Requiem: Kyrie

Mozart Requiem: Sequenz: Dies Irae

Yamantaka Ritual: Jangwa

Mozart Requiem: Tuba Mirum

Mozart Requiem: Rex Tremendae

Mahakala Ritual: Kangwa

Mozart Requiem: Recordare

Mozart Requiem: Confutatis

Mozart Requiem: Lacrimosa

Yamantaka Ritual: Serkwin

It's an impossible job to assess performances in terms of each other on this CD. Each group of artists sound excellent at what they're doing, but someone who knows what a well sung chant sounds like is probably the wrong person to comment on a recital of a Requiem Mass. The Gregorian chants are soft and ethereal, the Tibetan chants are exotic, oozing the sticky scent of burning butter lamps, and The Requiem, directed by Roland Haas, recently elected rector of the Universit t Mozarteum Salzburg, is delivered with aplomb by the Stuttgarter Philharmoniker and the grandeur of the combined W rttembergischer Kammerchor and Chor der Staatlichen Hochschule f r Musik und Darstellende Kunst, Stuttgart. The often smothered horns in this piece are clear here, making a strong aural bridge to the Tibetan ensemble, while the soloists work well together. The tenor voice is that of Scot Weir, celebrated Oratorio singer and Artistic Director of the Wiesbaden Musikherbst.

The bringing together of these pieces of music is a brilliant idea, which never really has the chance to be realised in its full glory because of the basic logistical and aesthetic difficulties of fusing such dissonant forms. The theme of transformation / resurrection / rebirth binds the spiritual background to the music, but its actuality is foiled by the integral beauty of one of Mozarts most sublime works and the Western ear's inevitable leanings towards the melodic. A cappella Gregorian chants are bound to succeed where Tibetan monks simply cannot. Varying meters in the chants of the Roman Catholic Church are a far lesser sonic sin than the apparent atonality rising from the dung and conch of the Lama monastery orchestra. The CD is not enough in itself to convey the links that exist across the faiths in the project. Originally, there was a short course of lectures in which the comparative religious, theological and ethnocultural aspects were discussed. If the transcripts had also been made available, they would have provided valuable support for the listener.

This double CD comes in a fold-out card case sporting very attractive fractal artwork. A specially written message from the Dalai Lama, plus a voluminous booklet that includes notes on the music types and their libretti round off the package luxuriously.

Traditionalists will baulk, and fans of fusion will question whether it is enough to simply reprogram a sequence in performance, or whether some actual melding of forms is required to achieve the integration. Both would be wrong. That is clearly not the point of the exercise. This performance was devised as a concert program that would reflect the spiritual roles that musicians have come to share. In this light it succeeds, but whether it provide a pleasurable experience without programming your CD player to recreate the original pieces separate of each other is questionable.