Ian Krouse’s powerful Armenian Requiem, commissioned by Vatsche Barsoumian’s Lark Music Society, draws on traditional liturgical chant and poetry to make a powerful case for redemption through music. Climaxing unconventionally at the beginning of the second half and not the end, Krouse’s sprawling tapestry of 21st-century colours, sonorities and textures, infused with his knowledge of Armenia’s deep and rich musical history, is a timeless and timely pan-religious call to ‘fight against oppression’, as Barsoumian writes in his booklet note, ‘not with arms and violence, but with immortal song’.

Part 1 begins with the formal strength of Creation followed by a bitter lullaby sung with soaring range by Garineh Avian. A tremendous flood sequence – ‘Moon of the Armenian Tombs’ – in which the assembled forces come together for the first time to overwhelming effect, ends with thunderous timpani recalling the many five-star recordings made in Royce Hall by the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Part 2 opens with an even more resplendent cry from the Book of Lamentations featuring thrilling chromatic writing for the chorus before ending in a radiant Amen illuminated by organist Christoph Bull. This great movement is followed by eight short tracks of a gentler, more conciliatory nature; the last, Krouse’s response to Daniel Varoujan’s ‘Blessing of the Land’, has a shining Mahleresque quality.

With the composer producing, conductor Neal Stulberg’s command of the assembled forces – including many of LA’s finest musicians, such as the UCLA Philharmonia’s concertmaster Movses Pogossian – brings with it the assurance of authority. The full texts, which add substantially to the impact, are available on Naxos’s website.