Editorial Review

The Hilliard Ensemble bathes these vital vocal works by Josquin in a Mediterranean light: clear, warm, and brilliant. Josquin was a northerner who, like so many other composers of the Renaissance, descended to Italy to pursue his career. The singers bring to life the composer's marriage of the Flemish preoccupation with technique and the southern instinct toward lyricism. This is an extraordinary disc. Read more

Reviews (13)

Beneath the objective criticism often lies a subjective grandeur
3 1/2
The Orlando Consort sings Desprez much better...
This unexpensive and rather short cd offers a selection of Desprez's works, both sacred and profane in a 50/50 ratio.
Splendid
Other reviewers have pretty much said it all-- all I can add is-- if you don't like James's voice, then don't listen to Hilliard.David James is to the Hilliard Ensemble what The Edge is to U2. ;) ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Chanson    2. Choral    3. Choral Music    4. Classical    5. Classical Composers    6. Classical Music    7. Motet    8. Requiem/Requiem Section   

Reviews (5)

This will be "The Recording" of Frostiana for many years
I'm a recently born again fan of the MTC, so I had to pick this one up when it came out.I'm familiar with many of the pieces on the CD, so I was rather surprised with the orchestral arrangements that were included. (Frostiana was originally written for piano!)My surprise quickly turned into a wonderful listening experience as Craig Jessop sensitively led the choir through these beautiful standards of choral literature.
Gorgeous, shimmering rendition of Frostiana
I bought this CD because I wanted a decent recording of Randall Thompson's Frostiana.It surpassed all my hopes.I was somewhat suspicious about whether the MTC could carry off the mystical, secular music of "Choose Something Like a Star," "Come In" and "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening."I shouldn't have worried.The MTC is staffed, directed and conducted by true musicians, and its use of orchestration added even more to the performance. Initially, I was bothered by the flautist's rhythmic interpretation of the wood thrush in "Come In" -- it seemed like the flute wasn't coming in on cue -- but then I realized that this was probably a deliberate artistic interpretation.Of course one wouldn't expect a bird to sing on cue.Sheer genius.

A sublime recording
In the past, I have often been critical of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. It seemed to me that, regardless what type of music they performed, it all sounded the same. When Craig Jessop took over the podium five or six years ago, it was obvious that the choir's musicality and technique began to change for the better.
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Subjects:  1. Choral    2. Choral Music    3. Classical    4. Classical Artists    5. Lds - Latter Day Saints    6. Mass Section    7. Orchestral & Symphonic   

Reviews (2)

The Arts Lend a Light to Global Understanding
SACRED BRIDGES is not just a recording of great beauty and intensely interesting music, it is also a solid though quiet stance about global understanding, especially in the realm of basic spiritual flow and similarities among the currently (and historically) disjunctive elements of Christianity, Judaism, and Islamism.
Transforming Music
In a world where the result of our collective knowledge of the diverse cultures is the hope for global understanding, this album is pivotal.
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Subjects:  1. Chamber    2. Chamber Music    3. Choral    4. Choral Music    5. Classical    6. Classical Artists    7. Classical Vocals    8. Psalm Setting   

Editorial Review

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Reviews (16)

Magnificent voices, songs and arrangements
This is an extraordinary collection.The songs are irresistible, the voices incredibly powerful and filled with appropriate emotion, and the orchestra is very simply great.You'll want to buy this album for others.Simply beautiful.A pure joy.

Not their best album
For the most part this is an enjoyable collections of sacred music. However the inclussion of "Lord of the Dance" and other modern tunes are dreary no matter who sings them.

Excellent !!
I recently went to a concert to hear The Irish Tenors.They did several songs from this CD and it was great.If you like John McDermott as much I do then you must have this CD.This is a triple good CD with 3 top tenors. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Choral    2. Choral Music    3. Classical    4. Classical Composers    5. Classical Crossover    6. Classical Vocals    7. Hymn    8. Inspirational    9. Ireland    10. Irish Folk    11. Miscellaneous    12. Miscellaneous Music    13. Solo Voice(s) and Orchestra    14. Vocal    15. Vocal Music    16. Vocal Pop    17. Western European Chant   

Editorial Review

The heart of this collection is 15 of Mendelssohn's Read more

Reviews (9)

The Best Music CD I've Ever Seen (or heard!).....
Murray Perahia is at his best in this classic. His playing of Mendelssohn's compositions is absolutely mouth-dropping. Some of them seem a little fast (example: Op. 19, No. 3) but it all incredible. Mendessohn is my personal favorite composer not only for his work but also for his excellent Christian faith in his music. Liszt, Bach, and Schubert are very wonderful composers in this as well. I guess I got carried away about the Mendelssohn...!! This is a must if you love classical/romantic period music.

A wonderful program of delightful and important music
This disk is a bit of a rarity in modern recording.It isn't a disk of a single work or series of works.It isn't the WHOLE of the Mendelssohn "Songs Without Words".Instead it opens with four of the wonderful Busoni transcriptions of Bach organ preludes.Perahia played these four here in Ann Arbor along with the Bach "Goldberg Variations" and it was a GREAT night.His playing here is at its most poetic and is full of colors (don't mistake this for being colorful in the sense of being eccentric - think rather in terms of a rich palette of sounds). Perahia plays Bach - no other recommendation needed
After the first 4 tracks, where Murray Perahia plays 4 Bach transcriptions of organ preludes to cantatas, the rest of the CD is just a bonus.Read more

Subjects:  1. Chamber Music & Recitals    2. Chorale Prelude or Chorale Treatment for Keyboard    3. Classical    4. Classical Artists    5. Classical Music    6. Keyboard    7. Music for Organ    8. Song Without Words for Keyboard    9. Transcription for Keyboard   

Editorial Review

This new release is somewhat mistitled: while most of the pieces are, in fact, from the Renaissance (or early Baroque), there are works here also by Samuel Barber, Poulenc, John Tavener, Bruckne,r and Gorecki. What they all have in common is their beauty and serenity. Perhaps the CDs subtitle, "Music for Inner Peace," also refers to a type of renaissance, i.e., spiritual re-birth: in which case, they're right on the money. The Sixteen, led by Harry Christophers, is one of the greatest proponents of this sort of choral music in the world, and they don't disappoint here: The Allegri "Miserere," with its wickedly beautiful ascent to high C by soprano soloist, is ravishing; Barber's own arrangement of his "Adagio for strings" for chorus (1967) is polyphony at its most "renaissance" without actually being so, and Gorecki's "Totos Tuus" is otherworldly in it mysticism. The selections by Byrd, Tomkins, et al., are, like the others, impeccably performed. Even an early piece by contemporary composer John Tavener, normally the master of excruciatingly pretentiousness, is lovely. This recording is a gem. Read more

Reviews (5)

Ethereal Album
I heard this album played on my local PBS station one morning and was in immediate love.It's worth every cent you'll pay for it.

Great Music, Fine Performances
First off, the title of this album is misleading.Only one of the tracks stems from the high Renaisance.The rest span from the Reformation period to contemporary.All of them are liturgical, all of a certain calm and meditative style--which could be inferred from the subtitle: "Music for Inner Peace."
Music for Inner Peace Indeed!
Though there is somewhat of a sameness to the mood of this beautifully performed and recorded album of choral works that span centuries, that uniformity of message is the creative force for this survey of music by various and varied composers.The works were selectedto provide a parcel of time away from the noise outside the spirit, a place for meditation and solace so desperately needed today.
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Subjects:  1. Anthem    2. Baroque Motet    3. Choral    4. Choral Music    5. Classical    6. Classical Artists    7. Classical Vocals    8. Mass Section    9. Miscellaneous    10. Miscellaneous Music    11. Motet    12. Part Song/Glee/Music for Unaccompanied Voices    13. Psalm Setting    14. Renaissance Mass    15. Renaissance Motet    16. Romantic Motet    17. Sacred Choral Music    18. Sacred Choral Music a cappella    19. Vocal   

Reviews (3)

Thank you, Robert Levin, for a Rare Gift
It is difficult to understand what "Observer" disliked about Robert Levin's completion of Mozart's glorious Mass in C Minor, especially in Helmuth Rilling's magnificent performance with his Stuttgart forces and soloists.Maybe that reviewer finds any "completion" of a masterpiece "presumptious" (so long, Ravel's orchestration of Mussorgsky's "Pictures").Rather than intellectually analyzing every added fugue to see whether it goes on for too long a time, I prefer to listen with open ears and mind and bask in the enchanting score.Certainly of all Mozart's works, the C Minor Mass tends most to sound "Baroque" (indeed, even Romantic) in its drama and passion.As for the "brassyness" [sic]of the added orchestrations, again nothing sounds out of place.Hearing the originally 45-minute incomplete mass pour out of my speakers (or through my headphones) for nearly an hour and a quarter has been a repeatedly enthralling experience.The soloists are wonderful, the chorus enthralling, the direction by Helmuth Rilling of the Bach-Collegium Stuttgart exhilariating.Do not let "Observer's" grumpiness keep you from enjoying this monumental masterpiece.

Levin should write his own music and let the dead RIP
In spite of the critics knocking each other over to say glorious things about the mass, the additions left me cold. I felt like I was auditing a class in fugue writing in the style of Mozart 101.A genius visualizes the development of a theme and weaves the way masterfully in a manner that is both logical and beautiful.Levin has the logic down pat, but not the beauty - - and the repetitions of the themes that he felt compelled to state, again and again, and again,and when he finally gets cooking on some interesting development, he hits you over with the head with the subject a few more times for good measure.The developments are very boring.Progressionsare taken out of the Mozart play book in the most plebianof ways.Like, see what a great scholar I am.I studied Mozart and now I can write like Mozart.And unfortunately, he also missed the chronological mark with some of his writing sounding decidedly baroque, not to mention the brassyness of his added orchestrations.But that could have been partly the fault of the recording engineer.
requisite presumption
In the movie AMADEUS, the aged Salieri describes looking at the score of Mozart's work as if it were a fence between him and the voice of providence;in the background we hear the most beautiful melody, sung by soprano.
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Subjects:  1. Choral    2. Classical    3. Classical Composers    4. Mass    5. Orchestral & Symphonic   

Editorial Review

The "Essential" Purcell?Well, you could get a bunch of critics to argue about that for a few days, but in the meantime, here is a sampler of highlights from the King's Consort's three admirable Purcell series: the Read more

Reviews (7)

The beauty of the songs brings tears to my eyes
Absolutely beautiful baroque music! The arrangament, singing and instrumentation is superb.It is too bad that Henry Purcell is not as widely known as Bach, because he should be recognized equally well."The Sparrow and the Gentle dove" is alone worth the price of the album! I can not stop playing it!

Brilliant
Like in his renditions of Handel's oratorios, Robert King manages to bring a freshness and strenght to Purcell's music that I had seldom heard before. This CD also features some of the best performers of early music in the world. My favourite tracks are Oh, Fair Cedaria, sung by the multi-talented Barbara Bonney; Dido's Lament from Dido and Aeneas, sung by Gillian Fisher; She Loves and she Confesses too, sung by the wonderful Susan Gritton; and Welcome, Welcome Glorious Morn, sung by Rogers Covey-Crump. The only track I didn't find absolutely wonderful is Fairest Isle, sung here by James Bowman. Don't get me wrong, I generally love Mr Bowman, I think that his performance in Mr Purcell's Most Admirable Composures (also conducted by Robert King) makes it another essential Purcell recording; but I find that Fairest Isle was much better done elsewhere, particularly by Christopher Hogwood and Barbara Bonney. Be Welcome then, great Sirs (and Mesdames).
If anyone has benefitted from the reversion in the last three or so decades to period instruments and historical reconstruction, it is Henry Purcell.Before, he was merely great, the peerless word-setter in the English language, a virtuoso of boundless range, a professional composer whose offical commissions were always imbued with personality and invention.But period instrumentation has added to this a greater depth, an other-worldly texture of sound.With his intricate, multi-part vocal writing, his preference for low, rumbling instruments such as the bass viol and the strange and remarkable theorbo, as well as his often sombre and low-key subject matter and treatment, Purcell creates a round, glowing, humming sound as pregnantly full as dub reggae.Read more

Subjects:  1. Anthem    2. Art Song (General)    3. Baroque Incidental Music for Orchestra and Voices (or Sem    4. British Baroque Opera    5. Choral    6. Classical    7. Classical Composers    8. Classical Music    9. Miscellaneous    10. Miscellaneous Music    11. Ode    12. Opera    13. Sacred Music for Soloist, Chorus and Instruments    14. Solo Voice(s) and Small Ensemble    15. Vocal   

Subjects:  1. A GRAMMY NOMINATED CD, this Tour de Force of Brass playing, includs an all-star ensemble of some of the finest brass players in the world performing orchestral transciptions, old world folk songs, and jazz selections.    2. Chamber    3. Chamber Music    4. Choral    5. Classical Artists    6. Italian Romantic Opera    7. Keyboard    8. Miscellaneous    9. Miscellaneous Music    10. Music for Organ    11. Opera    12. Orchestral    13. Requiem/Requiem Section    14. Symphonic    15. Symphony    16. Transcription for Orchestra   

Reviews (8)

music inside you
Have you ever felt music inside you when watching the sun going down, when felling the breeze in your hair, when smelling the grass in a gentle summer night...? The music of this CD may remind you that part of yourself that we may tend to forget in our busy life, liked the words of Celibidache which I liked very much: "the music is not the notes, YOU are the music"!
An excellent compilation of Faure's work
I bought this cd not knowing anything about Gabriel Faure's music. A local orchestra was planning to perform Masques et Bergamasques, so I picked this cd being the most inexpensive way of buying something I possibly was not going to enjoy. But nothing could be further from the truth. I love this cd! It has such a nice variation of formats: piano concerto (Ballede in F sharp major Op. 19), piano solo (Baracarolle No.1 in A minor, Op. 20), vocal (Requiem, Op. 48), and symphony (Masques et Bergamasques). The music is also well played by various artists...no complaints on the performance side. And if it is true that one becomes the thoughts and vibrations that one allows to enter his or her mind, then by listening to Faure you may find yourself becoming a bit more tender, patient, and even romantic in your ways.

Romance
Bought this CD originally because of Romance, but I like it all. This is a new composer for me and I'm glad I found Faure'. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Barcarollefor Keyboard    2. Chamber    3. Choral    4. Classical    5. Classical Composers    6. Classical Music    7. Concerto    8. Keyboard    9. Music for Four Hands at One Keyboard    10. Orchestral    11. Orchestral & Symphonic    12. Piano Concerto    13. Requiem/Requiem Section    14. Romance for Keyboard    15. Romantic Incidental Music for Orchestra    16. Secular Choral Music with Orchestra    17. Violin Concerto    18. Violin with Keyboard   

Reviews (1)

Christmas Music in the Pastoral Style
I love Christmas Music.Not just the Bing Crosby "White Christmas" and the Andy Williams "Happy Holidays", but the classical music genre that truly portrays the Birth of Christ.(What Christmas is really about before Santa Claus).
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Subjects:  1. Choral    2. Christmas / Chanukkah    3. Classical    4. Classical Composers    5. Magnificat    6. Sacred Music for more than one Solist, Chorus, and Instru   

Editorial Review

What is this music? Fundamentally, it's an exploration of what happens when an improvisatory instrumental voice (saxophone) is placed into the world of early vocal music--which has elements of both improvisation and formal structure. In reality, it's an adventure in which the four male voices of the Hilliard Ensemble travel the 14th- and 15th-century territory of Morales and Dufay, visit the 12th century of Perotin, and roam even earlier ages of plainchant, accompanied by the always sensitive and tasteful--and often astonishing--saxophone improvisations of jazz master Jan Garbarek. Sometimes, these new melodies simply accompany; sometimes they transform the common--a routine minor chord, for instance--into a sublime, indescribable moment. The answer to the above question is easy--but it's different for each listener. Read more

Reviews (14)

Mixed feelings about mixed genres
Although I enjoy listening to these recordings for their serenity and sense of magical wonder, I tend to sympathise with some of the less glowing reviewers. My favourite passages are, without a shadow of a doubt, those in which the eminent Mr Garbarek's sax is 'tacit' or, at least, 'pianissimo'. Indeed, from time to time I struggle with an impulse to shout out: "Oh shut up, Jan, and let me listen to those wonderful singers!" That said, the voices and the sax do sometimes synergise, though I get the distinct impression that Mr Garbarek was simply overdubbing an existing recording by the Hilliard Ensemble: he seems to be reacting to them, but notvice versa. And with more rehearsal, his notes might have been more appropriate. FINAL VERDICT: an interesting oddity, not an unmitigated success.

Wow.
Gregorian chant is one form of music. If you must have it in the pure form, go elsewhere.
What Coltrane hears in heaven
If you haven't heard any of these tracks before, then almost nothing can prepare you for them.I do feel sorry for those listeners whose sensibilities have been outraged, and who believe that these songs are set in stone, and that no kind of improvisation is legal.The effect must be like seeing (as Prince Charles remarked of a modern building in London) a carbuncle on the face of a loved old friend.
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Subjects:  1. Chamber Music & Recitals    2. Choral    3. Classical    4. Classical Crossover    5. Conductus    6. Hymn    7. Jazz Music    8. Miscellaneous    9. Miscellaneous Music    10. Part Song/Glee/Music for Unaccompanied Voices    11. Sacred Choral Music    12. Vocal    13. Western European Chant   

Reviews (7)

Miserere
Although the CD tends toward the somber, there is a majestic quality to Gorecki's music.The harmonies in Broad Waters are especially stunning.

Power of the Human Voice in Concert: Hope for Brotherhood
Henryk Gorecki is able to achieve so much power and transcendence with so very little that his music for unaccompanied chorus stands as a metaphor for we as the global community cold achieve if we believed in the motivation that soars through this selection of music.
Bumps, Crashes and Beautiful music
Beautiful singing.It's unfortunate that some poor guy was made to fold chairs in the room throughout the entire recording.I only wish this was an exaggeration.Listening in the car may alleviate some of the problem . . . ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Choral    2. Choral Music    3. Classical    4. Classical Composers    5. Classical Music    6. Sacred Choral Music   

Reviews (2)

substantial antidote to sticky xmas music
Tired of the Robert Shaw Chorale etc.?Rest your ears on this.If the Coventry Carol as sung here doesn't give you at least a mild case of goose pimples with its perfectly executed dissonances, something's wrong with you.Bring out the groaning board for the festive Boar's Head Carol, and tap along to the synchopations of Gaudete and Riu, Riu Chiu.There's a wide range of feeling in these carols so be prepared to experience quiet solemnity and rousing fun and everything in between while listening to this CD.

The most beautiful music--and not just for Christmas!
If you like Medieval and Renaissance music you will absolutely love this CD. I bought it as a Christmas CD years ago and I listen to it year around. The harmonies are beautiful. I have given it to friends for presents. I have CDs of music from this time period but this is my favorite. I very highly recommend it. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Choral    2. Choral Music    3. Christmas    4. Christmas / Chanukkah    5. Christmas Music    6. Classical    7. Holiday    8. Miscellaneous    9. Miscellaneous Music    10. Miscellaneous Vocal Music    11. Part Song/Glee/Music for Unaccompanied Voices    12. Renaissance Motet    13. Vocal   

Editorial Review

This is the record that started the Hildegard craze back in 1982--and you need only listen to Emma Kirkby glide and soar through Read more

Reviews (14)

Short, but still the very best of Hildegard of Bingen. Buy It.
'A feather on the breath of God' is a performance of eight 'Sequences and Hymns' by Abbess Hildegard of Bingen' which has been lauded by Gramophone Magazine as a 'Best of' in the year it was released.
The great thing about classical music
Is that you can keep discovering new and beautiful music.New?It's only 900 years old.This is a case of something which I would never have thought I'd have an interest in, but upon listening have had my mind opened and educated.
Probably the best Hildegard interpretation around?
This album is so beautiful it hurts. Hildegard surely must rank as the foremost composer of the millenium - anyway, it does take some talent to stay popular for 900 years! It even runs cirles around the more well-known singing of the monks of Santo Domingo De Silos, and that album is also good. I have not yet heard Agnethe Christensen's interpretation of Hildegard, that one just might be better.
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Subjects:  1. Antiphon    2. Choral    3. Choral Music    4. Classical    5. Classical Composers    6. Classical Music    7. Early Music / Chant    8. Hymn    9. Medieval    10. Response    11. Sacred Choral    12. Sacred Choral Music   

Reviews (6)

This CD Deserves SIX Stars!
However, the rating scale has a limit of five. I own over 700 CDs of virtually every type of music. Peace Like A River belongs in a class by itself!I've never written a review before but, after listening to this STUNNING performance by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, I feel compelled to share my praise with that of the five other reviewers. If I were limited to one word, I would use the word "SUPERB" to describe this beautiful and moving CD. SIX stars for Peace Like a River!BRAVO!!!

every good adjective
This album is all beauty and solace. The singing is pristine, the arrangements lush and often stirring--never saccharine. As with the previous reviewer, my first listing of "Peace Like a River" brought me to tears (especially "Peace Like a River," the sopranos in "Swing Low," and the bagpipes in "Thou Gracious God"). Buy this one.

Fabulous!
The perfect recording to help you recover from a long, hard day.Showcasing the MTC's "new" sound in contemporary choral arrangements with its own orchestra and conductor, "Peace Like a River" brought tears to my eyes in selection after selection during my first listen -- and I'm not normally an emotional person! The title song together with "Deep River," "Swing Low" and "Be Still My Soul" are alone worth the cost of the recording.Get this one! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Choral    2. Choral Music    3. Classical    4. Classical Artists    5. Gospel Choir    6. Holiday    7. Lds - Latter Day Saints    8. Miscellaneous    9. Miscellaneous Music    10. Orchestral & Symphonic    11. Sacred Choral Music a cappella    12. Solo Voice(s) and Small Ensemble    13. Vocal    14. Vocal Music   

Subjects:  1. Adagio for Orchestra    2. Anthem    3. Bagatelle for Keyboard    4. Ballet    5. Baroque Suite/Partita for Orchestra    6. Baroque Variations for Keyboard    7. Cantata    8. Cello Concerto    9. Chamber    10. Character/Single-Movement/Miscellaneous Work for Keyboard    11. Choral    12. Clarinet Concerto    13. Classical    14. Classical Collections-Artist Desc.    15. Classical Period Serenade/Cassation/Divertimento    16. Classical Period Symphony    17. Classical Sonata/Sonatina for Keyboard    18. Concerto    19. Concerto Grosso    20. Concerto for Two Solo Instruments   

Reviews (23)

DO NOT BUY THIS CD!
I will admit that both Wynton Marsalis and Kathleen Battle are great musicians, but baroque music is not their forte. If you want to hear this music performed beautifully and in a baroque style (and on period instruments!), buy the Art of the Baroque Trumpet vol. 3 with Niklas Eklund and Susanna Ryden. All of the best pieces from this CD are on that one as well, Handel's Eternal Source and Let the Bright Seraphim, Scarlatti's Su le Sponde del Tebro and Arie con Tromba Solo, Stradella's Il Barcheggio, and Perderi's Pace una Volta. Eklund plays on a baroque trumpet with 8 feet of tubing. His is richer and more beautiful than anything that can be produced on a modern piccolo trumpet (only two feet long), and Susanna Ryden's smooth pure voice accompanies it perfectly. There is very good musicianship on this CD, but it does not fit the style of the music at all.

Baroque splendor
This album by Kathleen Battle shows her in top form, as a true diva and fantastic interpreter of Baroque music. She is incomparable in these incredible difficult but very beautiful arias. Her version of Let the Bright Seraphim is simple the best ever recorded, she sails through these challenging lines with such ease. And of course Wynton Marsalis is there as a great partner. In many arias Kathleen's voice has to compete with his trumpet, like in Seraphim or Si Suoni La Tromba, and they sound so triumphant together. And there are many more arias when her singing is simply radiant, and divine.
Great Because Of Wynston Marsalis On The Trumpet
Wynston Marsalis that takes the trophy on this album. Marsalis is an energetic and contemporary black musician with flexible talent. Who'd have thought that such a dedicated jazz artist who knocks them dead on the sax and trumpet can also play magnificent classical music ? Classical trumpet is very tricky- the fingering, the dramatic, herald-like and lyrical sound is often hard to pull. Plus, this type of music is mostly found in the Baroque repertoire, one of the hardest in classical music due to the counterpoint and "roccoco" trills and musical ornamentations. It could be that because often Baroque trumpet employs lots of fancy trills and improvised cadenzas that Marsalis found it easy to transition from jazz to classical. He is a miracle here, with radiant and faultless technicality and musicianship. Anthony Newman conducts the Orchestra of St. Luke's, a terrific and top-notch orchestra that specializes in older music and often becomes benefitial for a singer- Renee Fleming recorded her "Bel Canto" album with this orchestra, doing a phenomenal job. I am sorry for Kathleen Battle. Yes, she has a brilliant, high soaring voice and is quite beautiful to listen to, but I am often mixed about my feelings for her. Everyone knows that she was a quintessential diva on stage and off, with a temperament that crossed the lines of professionalism, she was bitchy, demanding, cold and stuck-up. Sure, it's easy to develop narcissism when one has a gorgeous voice, but she would have been a fine example for her black "sisters" trying to get into opera if she had behaved with more decorum. Other singers, with bigger voices I might add, have behaved more gracefully- Leontyne Price, Shirley Verrett and mezzo soprano Grace Bumbry. Kathleen Battle only employs her "sweet" sound in this recording without any real depth or dramatic power. It's a shallow piece of cake to eat without much dynamic power. I recommend Renee Fleming's Handel Album instead.
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Subjects:  1. Baroque Opera    2. Cantata    3. Chamber    4. Chamber Music & Recitals    5. Choral    6. Classical    7. Classical Artists    8. Classical Music    9. Miscellaneous Sacred Choral Music    10. Opera    11. Oratorio    12. Solo Voice and Continuo    13. Solo Voice(s) and Orchestra    14. Trio Sonata    15. Vocal   

Reviews (20)

Utter disappointment
Gosh was I happy to have found the Missa Luba again! I heard it first in the 60s and fell in love with it - with the vibrance, the aliveness, the depth of feeling and colour of it. It brought back memories of the time when I heard 40 or so (black) workers in South Africa, singing on their way home from work, and that still is the most beautiful singing I've ever heard. And being a singer myself, I've heard a lot!
A pale shadow of the original
Others have already made this point, but I will repeat it.The orginal Missa Luba was a work of great genius.This version is the processed-cheese equivalent.It is musically competent, but sterile and ultimately boring.I can only guess that those who rate it highly have never heard the original, which I have the privilege of owning on LP.If you can't find the original version it might be worth your money to buy this one, but only because it gives an echo of the brilliant original.

Brings Back Memories!
The Missa Luba came out at a time when the Roman Catholic Church was just introducing (and allowing) the vernacular to be used in its liturgies.
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Subjects:  1. Africa    2. African Folk    3. Ceremonial    4. Choral    5. Classical Artists    6. Classical Music    7. Folk & Traditional    8. Kenya    9. Mass    10. Pop    11. Traditional Folk    12. Vocal    13. Vocal Music