Et Lux

Like the Rihm's part on the Requiem of Reconciliation, this album is a rework of the Roman Catholic mass for the dead. In Et Lux he used few part of the mass, especially the one used to pray for eternal light for the deceased. On the album, the conductor, Paul Van Nevel, doubled the vocal part.[2]

In The Guardian, Kate Molleson gave this album four stars and says that "this music treads the line of tangibility, with sudden rushes of anger or fondness and the messy half-memories that come with grief" and Molleson add that "Conductor Paul van Nevel doubles the vocal parts to create broad, generous textures that sound lovely and lush against the strings' icy clarity – all qualities that ECM's engineers are expert at capturing".[1]
In Gramophone, Arnold Whittall says that "while some of the more austere episodes might strain the listener's concentration, they are set against eruptive, even melodramatic passages that demonstrate Rihm's special ability to make something distinctively edgy out of meditation and reflection."[3]

ECM New Series – ECM 2404 NS.[2]