A Banquet of Voices: Music for Multiple Choirs

Thomas Tallis (Composer), Gregorio Allegri (Composer), Johann Sebastian Bach (Composer), Johannes Brahms (Composer), Antonio Caldara (Composer), Francisco Guerrero (Composer), Felix Mendelssohn (Composer), Peter Philips (Composer), John Rutter (Conductor), Cambridge Singers (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Cambridge Singers
• Conductor: John Rutter
• Composer: Thomas Tallis, Gregorio Allegri, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, Antonio Caldara, et al.
• Audio CD (February 29, 2000)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Collegium
• ASIN: B0000031I2
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #261,685 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Duo Seraphim

2. Misere mei, Deus

3. Crucifixus

4. Surrexit Pastor bonus

5. Spem in alium nunquam habui (The Forty-Part Motet)

6. Ave Regina caelorum

7. Fest - und Gedenkspruche: 1. Unsere Vater hofften auf dich

8. Fest - und Gedenkspruche: 2. Wie ein starker Gewappneter

9. Fest - und Gedenkspruche: 3. Wo ist ein so herrlich Volk

10. Mitten wir im Leben sind

11. Heilig

12. Motet No. 1: Singet dem Herrn ein neuses Lied, BWV 225: 1. Singet dem Herrn

13. Motet No. 1 : Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied, BWV 225: 2. Wie sich ein Vater erbarmet

14. Motet No. 1: Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied, BWV 225: 3. Lobet den Herrn in seinen Taten - Alles was Odem hat

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Haunting Beauty., August 6, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: A Banquet of Voices: Music for Multiple Choirs (Audio CD)

This has to be one of the finest demonstrations of what the human voice can acheive. It's music that that strikes a chord with you. It's music that gives you chills. It captures your soul, and then enriches it. Modern popular is laughable compared to the delicate depths of emotion and spirituality that are expressed here.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nice program...but somewhat lacking compared to others, October 5, 2000

By 

"johnmonteverdi" (At my desk in Makati, Philippines) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Banquet of Voices: Music for Multiple Choirs (Audio CD)

The Cambridge Singers have always been one of my favorite choral groups. Here they present a very unique and ambitious program, giving adequate performances of polychoral music.

Few disks will ever contain Allegri's Miserere and Tallis' Spem in Alium together...but how about this, Bach's Singet dem Herr motet comes along! Other gems include Mendelssohn's Heilig. Again, a very compelling compilation!

Why didn't I give this album 5 stars? Being a sort of choral freak, I get to collect hundreds of choral recordings...and I think all of the major works here have been performed much better by other groups. Just compare the Miserere here to that of Trinity College (another straight tone Cambridge choir). Or check out the reading of the Bach motet of the RIAS Kammerchor and then you'll see what I mean. The performances here are not the best that you'll find. Sure the choir sounds as crisp as ever but you realized it lacks something once you here other superb renditions...

Still, this is a compelling survey. Not to be missed by Cambridge fans and enthusiasts of the choral genre.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a voice teacher and early music fan, March 25, 2007

By 

George Peabody "Ariel" (U.S.A.) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: A Banquet of Voices: Music for Multiple Choirs (Audio CD)

IS RUTTER'S MISSION TO BREAK WITH TRADITION WHEN HE DOES NOT INCLUDE FALSETTOS IN HIS LINE-UP? I CALL IT SEDITION!!!!

This recording is a celebration and an exploration, of some of the great wealth of choral music written for multiple choirs. For centuries composers have loved to make use of the spatial effects obtainable from placing two or more choirs antiphonally, and some of the most sumptuous and thrilling sounds in choral literature have resulted.

Polychoral music takes many forms. Common to most of them is the idea of sounds coming from different points in space.

There is no theoretical limit to the number of independent voice-parts that a composer can write for, though beyond a certain number the practical problems of co-ordination in performance and maintaining clarity of sound become unmanageable.

More voices do not,of course, make for better music, yet in the hands of a master such as Thomas Tallis, forty voices are not an extravgance: he uses them to make extraordinary, wonderful, and at times almost overwhelming sounds that could not have been created in any other way.

Now, here are the reasons that this, to my thinking, is not a five-star album. Firstly, if you are going to perform the music of Guerrero, Allegri, Caldara, Bach and Tallis, you MUST not have female sopranos and altos, because their music was written in an era when females were not in choirs (for the most part). It actually offends me when I hear Allegri's lovely 'Miserere' performed with only one lone male alto. As for the Brahhms and the Mendelssohn, its quite proper to use the standard SATB choir minus the male altos and sopranos.

There is something lack-luster about this entire disc, and yet it is not ill-performed; nothing Rutter ever does is done poorly, so I apologize if I am over zealous in my critique.