Less well known among his works, the Missa sacra, Op. 147, bears witness to Robert Schumann’s late interest in sacred music – and in particular in Catholic church music. The work would have a rather difficult fate: during Schumann’s lifetime, it was neither published nor performed in its entirety. Even after its posthumous première, opinions were lukewarm. Wrongly so: the Missa sacra is a fascinating attempt to update sacred music through a refined post-classical musical language. It was originally conceived for orchestra, but Schumann also made a version for organ, presented here. This version allows great vocal transparency and immediacy, thus contributing to a clearer vision of the work.

On this fantastic, critically acclaimed recording of Beethovens’ greatest masterpiece, Claudio Abbado leads the Berlin Philharmonic through a performance of such nuance, such tumultuous emotion, that it’s difficult to imagine there’s a better way to hear this massively influential piece of music. Abbado is widely considered to be one of the most virtuosic and important conductors of the 20th and 21st centuries: in addition to winning two Grammy Awards, he holds four honorary doctorates, the Imperial Prize of Japan, and the French Legion of Honour among many other honors. Add that to one of the world’s premiere orchestras performing one of the most important compositions of all time, and a stunning high resolution audio recording, and you have an absolutely essential addition to your music collection.

With its 32 professional singers, the Swedish Radio Choir forms an instrument with a range from the most delicate a cappella tones to oratorios of enormous power and versatility. Every individual is allowed his or her place in the group, resulting in an exclusive expressiveness – the Swedish Radio Choir’s unique sound. The Swedish Radio Choir, which is one of the world’s most respected a cappella ensembles, was founded in 1925, but it was not until 25 years later (1952), under the leadership of their new principal conductor Eric Ericson, that the choir began to develop into the flexible instrument that it has now become. And every principal conductor after him has also contributed to the character of the choir, adding new colour and accomplishments. The present principal conductor, since the autumn of 2007, is Peter Dijkstra.

Following a series of acclaimed recordings of 19th-century music including complete cycles of the symphonies by Schubert and Schumann, Thomas Dausgaard and his Swedish Chamber Orchestra turn to Felix Mendelssohn.

Sven-David Sandström has acknowledged that it was thanks to Ingmar Månsson he began composing for choir. All the pieces are simply wonderful choral writing and the sound of this release is terrific. This is very demanding music and the level of vocal virtuosity that Peter Dijkstra elicits from the singers, collectively, is breathtaking.

Following on the success of their Nordic Sounds release, Peter Dijkstra and the Swedish Radio Choir return with a second volume of music in the series, this time focusing on the use of traditional Swedish folk songs in contemporary choral music. The disc's repertoire ranges from Jan Sandstrom's arrangements of improvised folk songs of the Sami people - whose singing is among the earliest continuing vocal traditions of Europe - to recent works such as the sixteen-part Kosijat by Jaakko Mantyjarvi, one of the best-known contemporary composers in Finland. The disc concludes with Anders Hillborg's twelve-minute Muoayiayaoum which explores a phonetic sequence of vowels that open and close. The level of vocal virtuosity that Dijkstra elicits from his singers is breathtaking and the choir's performances are a lesson in vocal precision.

The Twelfth Symphony forms an exception in Allan Pettersson’s output. When he agreed to compose a work for the 500th anniversary of Uppsala University, it was one of the few commissions that he ever accepted. Having written purely orchestral scores for the past 30 years, he decided to incorporate a choir and a text. Pablo Neruda had received the Nobel Prize in 1971, and acknowledging the poet’s ‘deeply felt compassion for the outcasts of society’, Pettersson selected nine poems from the huge collection Canto general for his new work.