Ešenvalds responds to the purpose of the words he sets, occupying similar choral territory to the likes of Whitacre and Shchedrin, character rather than ego dominating …

… an inventive Latvian composer with an ear for a good hook and a knack for evocative effects

Ešenvalds is emerging as perhaps the world’s hottest young choral composer

Ešenvalds is clearly the next big thing in musical mysticism …

Outrageously, exhaustingly beautiful, this disc pairs the best of Latvia’s contemporary choral composers with the best of young British choirs (Northern Lights by Trinity College Choir Cambridge)

His rich, sonorous choral writing is in almost permanent ecstasy, with sopranos sailing over great waves of cluster chords, a colouristic vision …

Ešenvalds displays an impressive command and variety of musical language …

In terms of imagination and aural allure [Ešenvalds’ music] is beyond anything I have heard since the halcyon age of the young Benjamin Britten

Hazy, autumnal vistas of rural Latvia are another sensory selling point, as is the elegantly spare choral score by Latvian composer Ēriks Ešenvalds (Crystal Bear-awarded film Mellow Mud)

Beginning with a colourful, multi-pitch chord that dissolves into fragments, the 13-minute work sustains Latvia’s venerable choral tradition with robust, resolutely tonal choral writing, as each of two parts builds to an almost cinematic climax in exalting nature (US premiere of Lakes Awake at Dawn by Boston Symphony Orchestra and Andris Nelsons)

Ešenvalds’s work is emblematic of a new golden age of choral music — Suzi Digby