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

★★★★★

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

★★★★

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

★★★★★★

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