Cyrillus Kreek

There must be something in the Estonian water that makes great choral composers. Everybody knows Arvo Part, who frankly is embarrassingly overrated. But hardly anybody knows Veljo Tormis, or Eduard Tubin, or Erkki Sven-Tuur. Fine composers all, and in my strong opinion Tormis may be the greatest living choral composer - taking the concept of the choir to places no other composer has ever thought to venture. But until tonight I had never heard of Cyrillus Kreek, let alone stumble on his setting of the ubiquitous (for VoW anyway) Psalm 137. What an amazing piece! This is exactly the sort of full-bodied orthodox choir piece I was looking for. This is totally going into the Rivers of Babylon project when we have enough singers.