Shirley Ratcliffe
Choir & Organ
February 2008

The arrangements of Clytus Gottwald take a lot of beating. They derive from late 19th—and early 20th—century works, and his approach is basically symphonic. Do his arrangements stand up well against the original? The answer is mainly yes. This is thanks to the persuasive performance of the young singers of the Rodolfus Choir, who do not blench at what is sometimes a formidable task. Composers given the Gottwald treatment include Mahler, Debussy, Wagner, Wolf, Berg and Webern. It's a pity there is some sound distortion in the fortissimo passages.