In the world of choral music the increasingly higher standards reached in recent years by a number of chamber-sized choirs has been a hugely encouraging development. With every intention and capacity to join such an elite group is Glossa’s recent signing, the Vlaams Radio Koor from Belgium – the Flemish Radio Choir. Its 24 professional singers are now under the baton of chief conductor Bo Holten. Other leading international conductors also appear at the helm of the Flemish Radio Choir: eminent guest conductors such as Kaspars Putninsh, László Heltay, Paul Hillier and Hervé Niquet enjoy working with the choir.

The choir’s beginnings reach back to the years 1936/7 when it was brought into being at the behest of the national Belgian Radio, with the task of cooperating in every broadcast of the radio requiring a choir. This remained under the direction of conductors such as Leonce Gras, Jan Van Bouwel and Vic Nees until the Radio Orchestra and the Radio Choir became independent and actually separated from the broadcasting company in 1996. Since that time the choir has been a concert ensemble rather than being based in the studio, touring extensively not just in Belgium but also in France, Spain and The Netherlands.

Such is its success at home that it now acts as a catalyst for amateur choirs in the Flanders region in areas such as repertoire and performance. Additionally it is organizing projects which will be involving students from various Flemish music conservatories. The Choir gives particular attention to Flemish and contemporary music. Each season the choir also commissions works from a number of Flemish composers. Since the 2005-2006 season, the Flemish Radio Choir once again makes its home in the Flagey building (Brussels, Belgium).

Since joining Glossa the Flemish Radio Choir has embarked on a series of recordings demonstrating its new-found capacity of excellence in the choral music repertoire. A first disc comprised a challenging programme of music by Zoltán Kodály. The Hungarian composer’s Missa Brevis (and a selection of some of his lesser-known choral works) was conducted by Johan Duijck (a pupil of the naturalized Briton László Heltay, who had himself been a pupil of that moving spirit of Hungarian musical nationalism, Kodály). For a second release the Choir turned its attention to another technically and interpretively demanding masterpiece in Sergei Rachmaninov’s Liturgy of St John Chrysostom, asking one of its regular guest conductors, the Latvian-born Kaspars Putninsh, to direct. On taking up the post of Chief Conductor, the eminent Danish choral director and composer (and early music specialist) Bo Holten cemented his relationship with the Flemish Radio Choir in an expert reading of the Motets of Johann Sebastian Bach for Glossa.