The Minnesota Orchestra has just released its recording of "To Be Certain of the Dawn," the acclaimed Holocaust memorial oratorio by Stephen Paulus that received its debut at the Basilica of St. Mary in 2005.

Alas, I didn’t have the opportunity to hear this dramatic 60-minute work performed live four years ago, nor did I make it to the repeat performance at Orchestra Hall last year when the recording on Swedish label BIS was being prepared. But the recording creates a moment that is enveloping and deeply moving — heartbreaking in parts, actually — and there’s little doubt that it is among the masterpieces of Paulus’ long composing career. If you’re a fan of Minnesota-made choral music, you’ll want to have this disc in your collection.

The work, a collaboration between Paulus and Twin Cities poet Michael Dennis Browne, grew out of an ongoing interfaith commitment between the Basilica and Temple Israel. Its commission by the Basilica in 2005 marked two important anniversaries: the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Nazi death camps — specifically, where 1.5 million Jewish children died — and the 40th anniversary of "Nostra Aetate ("In Our Times"), the Vatican II document that condemned blaming Jews for the death of Christ.

The recording involved massive resources: The Minnesota Orchestra, Minnesota Chorale, Minnesota Boychoir, the Basilica Cathedral Choir, the Cathedral Choristers, four soloists and a cantor.

The title comes from a quotation by theologian Abraham Joshua Heschel: "This is the task: in the darkest night, to be certain of the dawn, certain of the power to turn a curse into a blessing, agony into song." In the jacket notes, librettist Browne also lists other sources and inspirations, but the impact of the text is a fluid division into three sections that mingle hope, despair and beauty in ways that are deeply moving.

Paulus says he adopted the Biblical teaching, "You should love your neighbor as yourself," as the main theme of the work. The phrase is used both in Hebrew and in German — and at one point I found myself tearing up when the two languages were mingled in a section that had a Brahms-like sweep of aching tenderness.

The new album is available in stores or can be bought (for $20) at the Minnesota Orchestra’s recording page. 

It’s also expected to be available soon as a download on major Internet music sites.

RELATED CONTENT: From anti-Semitic hotbed to healing: St. Cloud area students to perform oratorio at Nazi death camps by Michael Anthony, April 25, 2008