Berio: Coro & Cries of London (Version for 8 Voices) The Norwegian Soloists’ Choir, Norwegian Radio Orchestra & Grete Pedersen

• Luciano Berio (1925 - 2003): Coro:
• 1 Coro: No. 1, Today Is Mine... Wake Up, Woman, Rise Up, Woman 05:07
• 2 Coro: No. 2, Venid a ver 02:04
• 3 Coro: No. 3, Your Eyes Are Red 00:28
• 4 Coro: No. 4, Venid a ver 00:05
• 5 Coro: No. 5, Your Eyes Are Red 01:10
• 6 Coro: No. 6, Venid a ver la sangre por las calles 00:26
• 7 Coro: No. 7, Wake Up, Woman, Rise Up, Woman 01:38
• 8 Coro: No. 8, Venid a ver la sangre por las calles 04:43
• 9 Coro: No. 9, I Have Made a Song 01:02
• 10 Coro: No. 10, Venid a ver la sangre por las calles 00:30
• 11 Coro: No. 11, I Have Made a Song 02:18
• 12 Coro: No. 12, Venid a ver la sangre 00:20
• 13 Coro: No. 13, Wake Up, Woman, Rise Up, Qoman 01:38
• 14 Coro: No. 14, Venid a ver la sangre 00:36
• 15 Coro: No. 15, Komm in meine Nähe 00:50
• 16 Coro: No. 16, Today Is Mine 01:40
• 17 Coro: No. 17, Pousse l'herbe et fleurit la fleur 01:02
• 18 Coro: No. 18, Go, My Strong Charm... Venid a ver 00:41
• 19 Coro: No. 19, It Is So Nice 01:25
• 20 Coro: No. 20, Your Eyes Are Red... El día pálido se asoma 01:53
• 21 Coro: No. 21, Mirad mi casa muerta 03:35
• 22 Coro: No. 22, Je m'en vais où ma pensée s'en va 01:46
• 23 Coro: No. 23, Pousse l'herbe et fleurit la fleur 01:04
• 24 Coro: No. 24, Oh issa... Ich sehe Tautropfen... Your Eyes Are Red 01:13
• 25 Coro: No. 25, Oh issa lo in alto... Komm in meine Nähe 00:33
• 26 Coro: No. 26, Come Ascend the Ladder 01:04
• 27 Coro: No. 27, When We Came to This World 02:04
• 28 Coro: No. 28, El día oscila rodeado 03:49
• 29 Coro: No. 29, Hinach yafà raayatí 02:16
• 30 Coro: No. 30, El día pálido se asoma 05:16
• 31 Coro: No. 31, Spin, Colours, Spin... El día pálido se asoma 05:56
• Cries of London (Version for 8 Voices):
• 32 Cries of London (Version for 8 Voices): No. 1, These Are the Cries of London Town 01:12
• 33 Cries of London (Version for 8 Voices): No. 2, Where Are Ye Fair Maids That Have Need of Our Trades 01:25
• 34 Cries of London (Version for 8 Voices): No. 3, Garlic, Good Garlic 01:07
• 35 Cries of London (Version for 8 Voices): No. 4, These Are the Cries of London Town 02:05
• 36 Cries of London (Version for 8 Voices): No. 5, These Are the Cries of London Town 01:12
• 37 Cries of London (Version for 8 Voices): No. 6, Money, Penny Come to Me 03:19
• 38 Cries of London (Version for 8 Voices): No. 7, Cry of Cries, Come Money to Me 03:22
• Total Runtime 01:11:54

Info for Berio: Coro & Cries of London (Version for 8 Voices)

Luciano Berio’s Coro has been described as the work that ‘exemplifies all the qualities that made him one of the leading composers of our time’. The work’s full title is ‘Coro for voices and instruments’, and the 40 voices and 44 instrumentalists do indeed make up a single choir – instrumentalists and singers sit together, with each singer paired with a particular player, and used both as soloists and combined in mass effects. Composed in 1976, Coro is also a strikingly ‘global’ work: Berio’s use of texts (mainly translations of folk poetry) attributed to peoples – ‘Peruvian’, ‘Croatian’, ‘Sioux’ – turns the work into a chorus of cultures. The texts are laid out in 31 separate sections of varying length, but the overall effect is cumulative, not episodic. The only named author is the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, who became a powerful posthumous voice following his death in 1973 in the wake of General Pinochet’s military coup.

Along with other text fragments, his words ‘Come and see the blood in the streets’ keep returning during the course of the work, and the sense emerges of human individuals needing to be alerted to social and political developments demanding a collective response. Under its artistic director Grete Pedersen the Norwegian Soloists’ Choir has made acclaimed recordings of music ranging from Norwegian folk songs and Hildegard of Bingen to Bach, Brahms and Xenakis. Joined by the Norwegian Radio Orchestra it now takes on one of the major choral works of the past 50 years. The album closes with Berio’s smaller scale Cries of London, performed by members of the choir.

The Norwegian Soloists’ Choir
Norwegian Radio Orchestra
Grete Pedersen, conductor

Grete Pedersen
The Norwegian conductor Grete Pedersen is one of the most renowned conductors in the international choral scene. Since 1990 Grete Pedersen is Music Director of the Norwegian Soloists’ Choir whose recordings were awarded the ‘Choc de la Musique’ and the ‘Prix d'Or’ from Diapason.

Grete Pedersen is a demanded guest conductor and has worked with the Eric Ericson Kammerchor, Schwedischen Rundfunkchor, Netherlands Radio Chor, Netherlands Chamber Choir, Danish National Vocal Ensemble and Choir, Rundfunkchor Berlin, MDR Leipzig Radio Choir, Chamber Choir Ireland, Pro Coro Canada, Tokyo Cantat, World Youth Choir, Freiburger Barockorchester, Stavanger Symphony, Slovenian Philharmonic among others. Grete Pedersen and the Norwegian Soloists’ Choir were invited to participate in the highly-acclaimed project “150 psalms” at Early Music Festival Utrecht, New York and Brussels in 2017/18.

Future highlights will see engagements with the Netherlands Chamber Choir, Choeur de Radio France, Croatian Radio Choir, Danish National Vocal Ensemble, Netherlands Bach Society, Estonian Male Choir, BBC Singers, Latvian Radio Choir among others.

Pedersen's name stands for productions and stagings with wide stylistic variety. Her contrasting concert programmes are known to often be a rather radical mixture. In addition to premiering contemporary musical works, her efforts have increasingly been directed towards larger productions for choir and orchestra.

BIS Records has released numerous recordings by Grete Pedersen and the Norwegian Soloists Choir with works by Per Norgard, Kaija Saariaho, Iannis Xenakis, Helmut Lachenmann, Alfred Janson, J.S. Bach, Knut Nystedt, Alban Berg, Olivier Messiaen, Fartein Valen, Anton Webern, Johannes Brahms, Franz Schubert, Edvard Grieg and Norwegian Folk Music. Her album with J.S. Bach Motets with the Norwegian Soloists‘ Choir and Ensemble Allegria was awarded the Diapason d’Or in 2018. The album The wind blows with music by Alfred Janson together with The Norwegian Soloists' Choir Records has been chosen as 'Record of the year 2018' by Gramophone.

Grete Pedersen completed her postgraduate studies in conducting at the Norwegian State Academy of Music in Oslo and has also studied chorus conducting with Eric Ericson and orchestra conducting with Kenneth Kiesler. She currently teaches as a professor in conducting at the Norwegian State Academy of Music and is a sought-after teacher for masterclasses.

In 1984 Grete Pedersen founded the Oslo Chamber Choir which she directed until 2004.

In November 2019, Grete Pedersen was appointed Knight 1st Class of the Royal Norwegian St. Olavs Order for her merit and outstanding achievements in the arts.

Booklet for Berio: Coro & Cries of London (Version for 8 Voices)