EBERHARD BÖTTCHER (b.1934): For Organ: Toccata Innovata, Voces, Veni Creator Spiritus, For Chorus: 6 Latin Motets, Kirchensonate for Horn and Organ, 2 geistliche Gesänge for Soprano and Organ

Description: This disc assembles works of a sacred nature by a composer of wide and varied output. Structurally, there are elements of dodecaphony in several of the works, though the impression even here is of a free expressionism rather than mathematical dogma. The strictly serial Voces is the most tightly organized piece, and even here the impression given by the music harks back to Baroque variations and counterpoint rather than the modernism suggested by the work's language. Elsewhere, though, as in the Songs and Motets, Renaissance polyphony and Gregorian Chant are the composer's most apparent models. The Prelude and Fugue is freely tonal, while the unusual Sonata for horn and organ has an almost neo-Baroque feel, overlain with richly Romantic harmonies. Gabriele Näther (soprano), Michaela Rohácová (horn), Chorus Ars Brunensis; Dan Kalousek, Martin Jakuícek (organ of the Husovice Church, Brno).