EUGENE–Helmuth Rilling and the Oregon Bach Festival Chorus and Orchestra have been nominated for a 2001 Grammy Award in the field of Best Choral Performance for the world premiere CD of Krzysztof Penderecki’s Credo.

The Recording Academy announced nominations for the 43rd Grammy Awards in Los Angeles on Jan. 3.

The Hänssler recording captured widespread acclaim since its full distribution in 1999. The New York Times said Penderecki’s piece "reveals drama on a Herculean scale, painted in every color in the composer’s box." R. M. Campbell of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer wrote that "everything about the Credo points to a composer at the peak of his power." It received five stars in Classic CD magazine.

Credo won the AFIM Indie award for best classical orchestral recording on an independent label and the Cannes Classical Award as best album of music by a living composer.

Soloists on the CD include alto Milagro Vargas, a faculty member of the University of Oregon School of Music; soprano Juliane Banse; and bass-baritone Thomas Quasthoff.

Banse and Quasthoff also were nominated in individual categories: Banse in the field of Small Ensemble Performance for works by South American composers; and Quasthoff in the field of Best Classical Vocal Performance for an album of Brahms and Liszt art songs, recorded with pianist Justus Zeyen. Banse, Quasthoff and Zeyen appeared together in recital at the 2000 Oregon Bach Festival.

Rilling received a second nomination in the Choral Performance category for his recording of the Bach Christmas Oratorio with his German forces, the Gachinger Kantorei and the Bach Collegium Stuttgart, also on Hänssler.

The Credo recording was the climax of a two-year artistic journey. A co-commission of the Oregon Bach Festival and the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart, Credo began as Penderecki’s setting of the full Catholic mass text. He settled on the Credo section, a litany of the church’s key beliefs, and supplemented the text with Psalms, excerpts from Revelations, and quotations from two Polish hymns.

Penderecki put his finishing touches on the 53-minute work in Eugene on July 4, just days before its premiere as the final concert of the 1998 festival. It was dedicated to Rilling, who–like his friend Penderecki–celebrated his 65th birthday that year. Rilling conducted subsequent performances throughout Europe including a gala premiere in Poland, Penderecki’s homeland.

The Grammy Awards take place Feb. 21 in Los Angeles. The full list of nominees is at <http://www.grammy.com>.

The Oregon Bach Festival is a program of the University of Oregon. The 2001 event takes place June 22—July 8. For more information, call (800) 457-1486 or connect to the website at <http://www.oregonbachfestival.com>.

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