Brother Luke, Monks of New Skete, NY, US

I have been listening to Joseph Jongen’s Mass for choir, organ and brass, recorded by the Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge under David Hill (Hyperion). Jongen poured his soul into 37 minutes of music, often autobiographical as it recalls the devastation of both World Wars which this Belgian composer lived through, including chords that sound like train whistles carrying prisoners to death camps, plus the presumed death of his son in a Nazi prison only to be reunited with him at war’s end. ‘Et resurrexit’ soars with the joy of his son’s return!