REVIEWS
“Mogens Dahl has at his disposal his own excellent chamber choir, which has gradually developed into true Messiah specialists. This naturally results in a significant surplus in the many wonderful choral parts.”
—Peter Dürrfeld, Kristeligt Dagblad, December 2022
“In most places, Mogens Dahl wouldn’t even have needed to conduct, as the musicians knew the work better than perhaps Händel himself.”
—Jeppe Rönnow, Magasinet Klassisk, December 2022
Scroll down if you are interested in reading more reviews.
ARVO PÄRT 'PASSIO' AT HOLMEN'S CHURCH
With his own elite choir, soloists and musicians, Mogens Dahl performed Pärt’s stripped-down Latin Easter work ‘Passio’. May this become a fixed tradition (…) This Palm Sunday it served as the perfect prelude for those wishing to immerse themselves in Easter as more than chocolate eggs and Easter bunnies.
Politiken, 29 March 2026
MESSIAH AT HOLMEN'S CHURCH
What particularly distinguished itself this year was the stringent grasp of the whole that Mogens Dahl displays in his conducting, at once giving all the necessary space and acoustic room to each individual element — granting the work precisely the freedom that gives it a rare transparency.
This includes both the individual vocal soloists and the orchestra’s combined instrumental and dynamic sound possibilities. But not least the conductor’s heart’s child, the Chamber Choir, which under his hands achieves a balanced and crystal-clear vocal palette within each of the four voice groups, making the choral movements sparkle and glitter like stars high in the church’s vault.
POV International, 14 December 2025
BRAHMS AND THE ROMANTIC LONGING FOR LOVE
“Mogens Dahl Chamber Choir, now on the threshold of its 20-year anniversary, still appears as one of the Nordic region’s undisputed leading vocal ensembles — under its founder’s sure and sensitive direction and with its perpetually young, dedicated voices — moving with equal ease in newly written choral works as in the classical choral repertoire. (…) The performance was not only flawless, but at once both heartfelt, strong and striking. And the texts, which can be difficult to keep clear in Brahms’ densely composed movements, were beautifully and precisely articulated under Mogens Dahl’s empathetic direction, which the choir constantly and devotedly followed.”
POV International, 22 September 2025
MESSIAH AT HOLMEN'S CHURCH
Mogens Dahl gave us the overwhelmingly precious Christmas gift. No arias were shortened, and after a good two and a half hours including intermission, I had received what I wish for again next Christmas: the perfect ‘Messiah’.
Politiken, 18 December 2023
MESSIAH AT VIBORG CATHEDRAL
Mogens Dahl Chamber Choir led an extraordinary performance of Messiah under the cathedral’s vaults (…) Sober Jutlanders? Not this Sunday in the cathedral in Viborg, where seconds later people spontaneously rose and gave thanks with thundering applause and roaring bravos for a concert that hardly any of those present will forget.
Kristeligt Dagblad, 10 December 2019
CD: 'CELLO LIBRIS' – WITH TOKE MØLDRUP AND MOGENS DAHL CHAMBER CHOIR
All credit is due to the Mogens Dahl Chamber Choir for its super diction in English, allowing us to relish the subtleties of Gordon’s writing … The demands on the performers are many: the control of the sopranos at times is stunning, their lines always delivered with the utmost purity. …
Colin Clarke, Fanfare Archive, 2020
LIVING DEAD, AARHUS THEATRE
“And as a finale, five singers from Mogens Dahl’s chamber choir appear. Like a faithful copy of the three burnt-out figures, they deliver a death mass. With incredibly beautiful musicianship they set a chilling full stop to a performance that wants to shake us awake and shout: just look how terrible things are. Europe is on its knees. Empathy is …”
Kirsten Dahl, Aarhus Stiftstidende
LIVING DEAD, AARHUS THEATRE
‘The brilliant actor trio is joined by five singers with divinely beautiful voices from Mogens Dahl Chamber Choir, who elevate the refugee killings into a grotesque dessert of beauty in Marie Rosendahl Chemnitz’s horror set design.’
Anne Middelboe Christensen, Information
★★★★★
THE PASSION OF ST. JOHN — MOGENS DAHL CHAMBER CHOIR / BROOKLYN RIDER WITH SOLOISTS
Heavens, how good Sandström’s new passion is. Sven-David Sandström’s new Easter work is beautiful music — and sung by a chamber choir in world class. Passion. A story set to music about Jesus’ final hours. Johann Sebastian Bach created a whole handful of works in the genre and made it one of the Baroque’s most delightful. … But living Sven-David Sandström can …
Søren Schauser, Berlingske Tidende, 23 March 2016
♥♥♥♥
INFATUATION, SUFFERING, DARKNESS, LIGHT, VOICES AND STRINGS …
Mogens Dahl’s chamber choir unfolded sovereignly when they delivered new Nordic passion at international top level. … SVEN-DAVID Sandström’s new ‘St. John Passion’ is one in a long line of great Christian choral works the Swedish composer has composed over the years. Sandström and Mogens Dahl’s Chamber Choir had success the previous year with Sandström’s ‘Nordic Mass’ to texts by Tomas Tranströmer, …
Thomas Michelsen, Politiken, 24 March 2016
★★★★★
IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF THE MIGHTY BACH
Mogens Dahl Chamber Choir’s mission with a new St. John Passion succeeded astonishingly admirably … The audience in Holmen’s Church experienced a new and artistically coherent version of the gospel’s gripping and dramatic account. The St. John Passion is normally sung in German, but here it was in English, while — as with Bach — chorales were embedded in the mosaic where the choir sang in Danish …
Peter Dürrfeld, Kristeligt Dagblad, 26 March 2016
SHIMMERING PASSION DRAMA
When Sven-David Sandström’s ‘The Passion of St John’ was performed in Lund Cathedral, the tonal language was mighty. Deliciously unhurried celestial voices created an undulating work about reconciliation, writes Johanna Paulsson. … It all begins in a low register with almost drone-like humming undercurrents, or a kind of organ point in Jens Bjørn-Larsen’s tuba, while finer voices and strings move upward. …
Johanna Paulsson, Dagens Nyheter, 27 March 2016
LUMINOUS VOCAL ART
… The special sound that Sandström has composed, and which the first-class musicians realised, seems to emerge from a text passage where John says he has risen “to the highest in me and found Love towering above that”, and that he has descended “to explore my lowest depths, and I found Him deeper still”. String quartet and …
Tobias Lund, Sydsvenskan, 24 March 2016
I CAN SAY, THIS WILL LAST, THIS PIECE
“I was very impressed by the combination of the bass-tuba and the string quartet and chamber choir — that is a very original idea. This piece will be very successful amongst church concerts — because it’s a music which is very deeply rooted in the contemporary life of a larger audience — that’s what church …”
Jan Brachmann, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
MESSIAH — MOGENS DAHL CHAMBER CHOIR / ORCHESTRA OF THE AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT
With beneficial sensitivity, without overdoing it, the 16 singers in Mogens Dahl Chamber Choir touched our hearts. Dahl had choir and orchestra appear rhythmically strong and marked, and his extensive choral experience clearly shone through, so the polyphonic lines stood completely clearly delineated. It was not high-polished, but flesh and blood with a Scandinavian …
Per Rask Madsen, Information, 18 December 2015
★★★★
A SWEDISH ANGEL VISITED HOLMEN'S CHURCH
She looked like an angel as she stood Saturday evening in her raw-white dress at Holmen’s Church, the Swedish soprano Hanna Husáhr. (…) The Swedish angel sang the aria with all the warmth and beauty one could wish for, and it became one of the highlights of a performance where also the three other soloists, the …
Peter Dürrfeld, Kristeligt Dagblad, 16 December 2015
★★★★★
SCANDINAVIAN FUNCTIONALISM MET GENUINE BRITISH BAROQUE
Once ‘Messiah’ was something that simply had to sound as grand and lavish as possible. The oratorio about Jesus’ birth, life, suffering and resurrection was meant to brim like a bowl of sweets on Christmas Eve. Mogens Dahl, fully in tune with the musical zeitgeist, has gone another way and cultivated what I in previous reviews have called a Scandinavian ‘Messiah’. …
Thomas Michelsen, Politiken, 13 December 2015
★★★★★
BRITISH BAROQUE STARS BROUGHT BUBBLES OF JOY TO MESSIAH
The world-famous British baroque ensemble Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, together with Mogens Dahl Chamber Choir and four fine vocal soloists, turned Handel’s Messiah into a feast of sound that bubbled in the body. … Mogens Dahl has created an attendance hit in the beautiful church space with a Christmas tradition built around the popular oratorio. His own chamber choir, which consists of 16 skilled …
Christine Christiansen, Jyllands-Posten, 13 December 2015
NORDIC MASS REVIEWED IN GRAMOPHONE
For the musically curious with time for and a fondness for superb a cappella singing, this monumental celebration of a Nordic «natural phenomenon» will be a captivating and exceptionally satisfying acquisition. Nordic Mass was commissioned by Bergen International Festival. The secular text is drawn from poetry collections by the Swedish Nobel laureate Tomas Tranströmer (b. 1931), published between 1954 and 1996, and …
Malcolm Riley, Gramophone
★★★★★★
A SILENT MASS
Harmony shatters with dissonances pure as ice crystals. A mass with ‘Kyrie’, ‘Gloria’, ‘Credo’, ‘Sanctus’ and ‘Agnus Dei’ is perhaps immediately associated with the Catholic Church, but it can also be used in other contexts. As is the case with the Swedish composer Sven-David Sandström’s ‘Nordic Mass’, which as the title suggests has a Nordic character. The …
Steen Chr. Steensen, Magasinet Klassisk
A SENSATION
The combination of Mogens Dahl Chamber Choir, Sven-David Sandström and Tomas Tranströmer is nothing other than a sensation. An artistic experience of the highest calibre and deepest emotions. I was utterly knocked out after the concert in Ulriksdal Chapel.
Camilla Lundberg, chief executive of music, Swedish Television (SVT)
DIFFERENT AND UPLIFTING MESSIAH AT HOLMEN'S CHURCH
Mogens Dahl gave the old oratorio new beauty. This year’s Messiah at Holmen’s Church became, on several levels, an uplifting experience. Mogens Dahl, true to tradition, conducted his chamber choir of four-times-four singers, but had rethought the orchestral side, so that the string group was now led by the four excellent musicians of the Danish String Quartet — Rune Sørensen, Frederik Øland, Asbjørn …
Peter Dürrfeld, Kristeligt Dagblad, December 2013
PERFECT CONCERT
“Two exquisite choral works from 1922 presented in Christians Church. On several levels it was the perfect Easter concert the audience in Christians Church on Christianshavn experienced on Maundy Thursday evening. It was an atmospheric setting for an exquisite programme when the splendid ensemble Mogens Dahl Chamber Choir offered two choral works from 1922, both with …
Peter Dürrfeld, Kristeligt Dagblad, April 2013
MORE NORDIC CHORAL MUSIC, PLEASE!
“Mogens Dahl Chamber Choir is an advocate for a cultural treasure that on Tuesday showed its strong potential at a chamber concert.”
Camilla Marie Dahlgreen, Information, 22 February 2013
VOCAL CREAM
“It produces a rich choral life of a luxurious whole-milk quality one is not accustomed to everywhere, and at the top floats an elite of professional vocal ensembles like the cream cap on the bottle.”
Thomas Michelsen, Politiken, 22 February 2013
THE VOICES ARE OUTSTANDING. PURE, CLEAR AND SECURE
It has become one of Copenhageners’ new preferred ‘Messiahs’, the performance with Mogens Dahl Chamber Choir at Holmen’s Church, and in recent years it has cultivated its own fixed form. It is Nordic, pure and simple. Characterised by a very small choir of just 16 voices — fewer singers than Handel himself used — and a …
Thomas Michelsen, Politiken, 14 December 2012
SIMPLE BEAUTY
Mogens Dahl Chamber Choir and the composer Arvo Pärt entered a perfect symbiosis on Sunday afternoon at Mørdrup Church at Espergærde Musikforening’s first concert of the season. The well-singing choir of 16 singers had thoroughly absorbed Pärt’s tonal universe and gave the audience a choral experience of the rare kind. Pärt’s music possesses this simple beauty that resonates …
Ole Josephsen, Helsingør Dagblad, 12 September 2012
SMALL SIZE NIGHT MUSIC
“How should a composer write his music?” the composer asked a street sweeper in front of his house. “What a question!” he replied, “I think one must love every note.” Arvo Pärt took it to heart: this is how a composer must understand music. And: this is probably how one as a listener must be disposed when one — as on Wednesday evening and …
Ole Straarup, Aarhus Stiftstidende, 5 September 2012
CHRISTMAS JOY AT HOLMEN'S CHURCH — GOLDEN MOMENTS DURING ‘MESSIAH’
The highlight for me, however, was the soprano aria that, after the Hallelujah chorus, introduces the third part of the oratorio: “I know that my Redeemer liveth” (a quotation from the Book of Job, chap. 19). (…) It is probably the number in the entire work where Handel most strongly expresses his Christian faith, and the charismatic …
Peter Dürrfeld, Kristeligt Dagblad, 9 December 2011
MOBILE AND WEIGHTLESS MESSIAH
About Camerata Øresund: “… thoroughly articulate, flexible, sonorous and imaginative — a pure pleasure.” About Mogens Dahl Chamber Choir: (…) formidable, with a flexible pulse, homogeneous sound and distinguished declamation. There must be almost limitless ways to approach Handel’s Messiah. The grand large-scale version or the lean, slim approach, and everything in between. In our time the pendulum has swung over to …
Valdemar Lønsted, Information, 9 December 2011
MESSIAH AND MOGENS
«Messiah» at Holmen’s Church broke all records in collective professionalism. Only eight of each gender. 16 young voices in total (…) the whole style is so right. Slow movements stop time entirely, while fast pieces run out to the last note — as one did in the Baroque. Mogens Dahl can sometimes be too much. …
Søren Schauser, Berlingske, 9 December 2011
THE LORD'S STORM — INTIMATE BUT DRAMATIC ‘MESSIAH’ AT HOLMEN'S CHURCH
With its chamber-musical transparency and intensity in bringing us very close to the shaking reality of the creation story, the crucifixion and judgement day, (…) we are close to grace in such a condensed, in reality almost intimate performance of ‘Messiah’. Out into rain and storm. With ‘Amen’ singing in our ears. Good to be re-armed by Handel’s ‘Messiah’ for this hell of …
Gregers Dirckinck-Holmfeld, 9 December 2011
MOGENS DAHL'S MESSIAH STOOD AS THIS YEAR'S GLORIOUS CHRISTMAS HERALD WITH LYRICAL CHOIRS, ENERGETIC INSTRUMENTALISTS
The enthusiasm radiated from choir and orchestra members in the movements about Jesus’ birth, crucifixion, resurrection and finally the dark heralding of judgement day (…) Thus this Messiah stood as the colourful statement of the pre-Christmas season. There is Messiah. And then there is Mogens Dahl’s Messiah: the wide-ranging choirmaster with his own chamber-music hall at Islands Brygge is this year for the fourth …
Christine Christiansen, Jyllandsposten, 8 December 2011
ALL EXPECTATIONS WERE MET …
“All expectations were met by Mogens Dahl Chamber Choir, where the music’s inner essence was displayed by outstanding choir singers. … Mogens Dahl is a sensitive conductor who manages to transfer his own experience to the choir singers, who in turn pass the experience on to the audience. One of his hallmarks is the use of the sound space. Before each piece, the choir lined up in a new …”
Stefan Thorleifsson, conductor, Iceland, 2011
SUPERB PERFORMANCE OF NORDIC SONGS AND LYRICS
“A delightful concert. We were impressed by the high quality of the choir and the professional contribution of each of its members. A superb performance of Nordic songs and lyrics.”
Vilhjálmur Árnason, professor of philosophy, Iceland, 2011
… A DISC OF SUBLIME LISTENING PLEASURE. LOVELY!
“Groundbreaking Scandinavian works for chamber choir, lovely performed. There is some absolutely ravishing music here … sung with great warmth of tone by the Mogens Dahl Chamber Choir. It’s a choir whose most notable attribute is the magnificently rich sound it produces; there’s not a voice out of place, not a single jarring edge …”
Marc Rochester, Gramophone, October 2010
A MESSIAH OF THE 21ST CENTURY
“A real Messiah of the 21st century.”
Søren Schauser, Berlingske Tidende, December 2010
CHAMBER-MUSICAL MESSIAH SUCCESS
“Mogens Dahl Chamber Choir again this year creates a bright, transparent and chamber-musical Messiah success. … Who says Handel’s ‘Messiah’ can only be performed with huge choirs and a full orchestra? For the third year in a row, Mogens Dahl Chamber Choir and the Baroque Orchestra Camerata Øresund drew a full house at Holmen’s Church with a slim, chamber-musical version of the solemn baroque work. There was …”
Christine Christiansen, Jyllandsposten, 10 December 2010
WHAT MADE THIS YEAR'S PERFORMANCE SOMETHING SPECIAL?
“What made this year’s performance something special? For instance, the smiles. All those involved are at once professional and visibly happy, satisfied, engaged — that is not always something one sees. One simply gets a Messiah with presence. Take also the soprano’s intonation, the alto’s dramatic involvement, the tenor’s superb control of vibrato and dynamics and the bass’s impressive fullness. Not to mention …”
Søren Schauser, Berlingske Tidende, December 2008
CRYSTAL-CLEAR AFFAIR WITH GEORG FRIEDRICH HANDEL'S SCORES
“Warm, intimate, completely crystal-clear affair with Georg Friedrich Handel’s scores.”
Henrik Friis, Politiken, 19 December 2009
INCREDIBLE EXPRESSIVENESS
“I have received recordings of my pieces by some of the best choirs in the world, and I must honestly say that their recording of Tota Pulchra Es is the best recording I have ever heard of my works. There is an incredible expressiveness and a passion in the performance that is very rare to hear.”
Composer Ola Gjeilo, 2009
TIGHT, ENERGETIC AND SOBER
“… The means were clear and simple. A small rise in tempo, a small darkening of character. Throughout, tight, energetic and sober, with plenty of individual qualities. … Mogens Dahl himself was prepared to his fingertips to deliver readings of the obvious word-to-tone interpretations that exist in Handel’s musical depiction of the Bible.”
Henrik Friis, Politiken, 19 December 2009