Long Road

Long Road is a setting of a love poem by Paulina Barda (widow of the eminent poet Fricis Barda), who died in 1983 at the age of ninety-three; set in the original Latvian, it was Esenvalds' contribution to Love madrigals, a collection of new commissions to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the remarkable youth choir Kamer . . ., and this English version was specially made for Stephen Layton and Polyphony, to whom it is dedicated. It has the plain sincerity of a hymn, being homophonic throughout, and its thorough-going diatonicism is straightforward yet lush. At the midway point, a gentle susurration of bell-sounds and ocarinas appears unexpectedly, there is a brief downwards shift of a third, followed by an elated return to the home key, decorated by soloistic descants, before sustained vocalise and a return of the evanescent tinkling ushers the piece to its close. (5:10)