Worth rediscovering

"... my whole life so far [has] been characterized by this miracle of sound that we call music. I have been a musician with every nerve, with every drop of blood ..." Hilber wrote this in 1963, shortly after completing his last composition, the Missa a cappella Vox clamantis in deserto. His own personal desert was a hearing loss that had begun at a young age and had steadily worsened.

Despite this, Hilber created a rich oeuvre and became famous above all for his church music (widely known as the Missa pro Patria) was known beyond the country's borders. Born in Wil in 1891, he worked in Lucerne from the 1920s until his death in 1973. In addition to his work as a composer, he was also an important teacher: among other things, he founded the Catholic Church Music School in Lucerne (now part of the University of Music) and headed it until 1967, was director of the Lucerne choral societies and co-editor of musical magazines. He was the recipient of numerous honorary titles and prizes, including an honorary doctorate from the University of Fribourg.

From 1934 onwards, Hilber found an ideal field of activity as the collegiate choirmaster at the Hofkirche St. Leodegar in Lucerne. The CD was recorded in this very church. Stephen Smith expanded his professional ensemble with ten professional musicians and five selected amateurs (a successful experiment!) to form the choir that the composer must have had in mind. The congenial titulaire Wolfgang Sieber made colorful and always supportive use of his organ, as did the soloists Gabriela Bürgler and Anne Montandon and the soloists Ross Buddie and Marcus Niedermeyr.

Hilber's late-romantic sound world is agogically and dynamically rich in nuances; this wonderful CD will hopefully unfold its effect in many emulating choirs.