Customer Reviews

Miserere

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This CD is a collection of Rennaissance Choral Music (with some plainsong) that forms a complete sequence for Holy Week. It is pure magic- the instant I put it on and the unaccompanied trebles began their lovely hymn "Vexilla Regis" I felt the solemnity and power of the ancient Catholic liturgies and ceremonies for Holy Week that I have grown up with and was swept away into it all... Particularly striking was the way in which "Vexilla Regis" segues perfectly into the Allegri "Miserere". I couldn't stop listening until the phone pulled me away at about track 9! It is beautifully sung, in particular the Responsories by Gesualdo and the Crucifixus settings by Lotti, as well as of course the scintillating Allegri "Miserere" and (presented here for what may be its only ever performance) the even more powerful Bai "Miserere". The only let-down are the booklet notes- "rambling" doesn't even begin to describe how cumbersome and unhelpful they are, although I'd be lying if I said they are uninformative. I wonder why we've never heard of the Westminster Abbey Consort anywhere else- it is obviously composed of members of the Abbey Choir and guest soloists, and is used to produce some added Renaissance touches in the Bai, Gesualdo and Monteverdi (I hope I'm spelling these composers' names correctly!). This is a disc that has a very strong ethereal atmosphere, and I am surprised that Martin Neary never did any further plainsong recordings at Westminster. This is well worth hearing by anyone's standards, though people with strong spiritual feelings will be most affected by it. Well done to Sony and all involved!

I bought this disk during a visit my oldest daughter and I paid to Westminster Abbey awhile back. We were fortunate to hear a choir rehearsing in the Abbey and as we were touring other portions and were near where the public does all the brass rubbings we heard this disk being played. It sounded especially fine reverberating through all that stone. Not only am I partial to sixteenth and seventeenth century polyphony, I have always enjoyed the sound of boys singing well. So, this disk was a must have.

The star piece, the Allegri "Miserere" is a famous piece with a less than straightforward history. It was a piece performed only in the Papal chapel. However, it was a very famous work and people wanted to get copies of the score, but were not allowed. Talented musicians, including famous musicians, went to hear the work and wrote down portions of it. At its peak the Papal Choir was dominated by castrati and it was probably the sound of their strong and high voices that made the Allegri work so effective.

The version of that work on this disk is not completely Allegri's work. It was "corrected" over the centuries and this version is a 19th century English interpretation of the work (still sung in Latin, of course). This version remains immensely popular and is very beautiful. The boy soprano singing the lead part here is very strong and makes the work ring in a way that is especially captivating. You can hear this work performed many times without hearing anything approaching the beauty of this recording.

The other works on the album are also quite wonderful. At times the boy's voices are supplemented with adult males and some women. We get wonderful works by Lotti, Gesualdo, Gabrielli, Monetverdi and others (including several relevant plainchant).

Great disk, which I strongly recommend to you.

The double glory of this CD is sensitively, even spectacularly performed ravishing examples of late-Renaissance/17th & 18th c. prima pratica choral music along with some of the best Gregorian chant. The choral music is from the style's greatest masters, mostly in rich 6-, 8-, even 10-voiced or multi-choir. (The exception is Gesualdo -- I doubt that he was so performed, and his music, while definitely also ravishing and a wonderful addition, is much more intimate; it's performed here with solo, not choral voices on each part.) All this is combined, in alternation, with some of the greatest Gregorian chants -- the Holy Week hymns & antiphons and especially the infrequently recorded "Reproaches". I suggest following the Reproaches' text (in the notes): its unusual, even passionate Gregorian melody makes them, perhaps, the most dramatic chants in Holy Week. Their unison in alternation with three of Lotti's equally dramatic & lush Cruxifixus settings, makes this the CD's emotional heart. The music is recorded in Westminster Abbey, and in the chant & full-choir music, the Abbey's resonance adds a beautiful afterglow. Of special note, too, is the high boy solo soprano in Allegri's Miserere: gracefully stunning, even transporting.

The total effect is a musical celebration worthy of Holy Week.

Holy Week, naturally, has produced some of the finest choral music of the late Renaissance and of that style's evolution in the 17th & 18th centuries into what became known as "prima pratica" or "first practice". It was "first" in two ways: first as in the basics were developed before the "modern", harmonic strictly-tonal (as opposed to tonal-modal) styles that were co-evolving with it as Baroque, and later Classical styles. It was also "first", during this same period, in that prima pratica was how musicians were first trained. (This changed to our current harmony-first training in the early 19th century; what's now known as "modal counterpoint" is taught much later, if at all.) So many, if not most composers of this period were at least somewhat musically bilingual, writing in both their modern & their current prima pratica style. Indeed, they sometimes mix them. Bach's B-Minor Mass, to site one example among many, has both, with the Mass's conclusion, his "Dona nobis pacem" (repeating the music of his earlier "Gratias agimus tibi") a wonderful Bach-ian prima pratica.

During that same late-16th to mid-18th century period, there were many great musical & choral establishments, often in Italy. Italy also led, by contemporary perception, in composing & musical training, dominating sacred, instrumental & operatic music. This is, of course, is a gross generalization, with many rich exceptions, but there's still some truth in it. (Handel, for example, went to Italy from Germany to study Italian opera before he went to England, where he continued to write Italian opera.) Undoubtedly two of the greatest choral estalishments were St. Mark's in Venice and the Papal Choir of Rome, from which most of the polyphonic music on this CD were drawn.

Sadly by the 20th c., prima pratica music had mostly vanished from performance & serious musical consideration, except for a few scatterings. Outside of its mixtures in works like the B-Minor Mass, it earned sneers from musicologists & performers, as lesser music in a petrified style. (I remember in the 1970's, one of my graduate musicology professors -- a specialist in 17th c. -- stunned, then sarcastic when, after I resurrected & performed two of Lotti's "Cruxifixus" settings, I asked about further study into prima pratica.) These works demonstrate prima pratica's quality, and it's also untrue that prima prattica's style remained ruthlessly the same. Not only were there significant differences among composers, but the style itself continued to evolve, paralleling developments in instrumental music & opera. Monteverdi's prima pratica, for example (if it can be so-called), is not like Lotti's. (Both are on this CD). Nor are they like, say, Alessandro Scarlatti's prima pratica.(Listen, for example, to his "Exultate Deo" or "Ascendit Deus".) All three composers, by the way, also wrote Italian opera.

On this CD, you can hear not only some of the best of this evolution, but also some of its performance-style evolution. The CD's extensive & informative notes describe what happened to the papal choir, moving from falsettist altos & boy sopranos to castrati, and later, into professional decline.

The CD's "extra" performance of the Miserere at the end I found interesting but not ravishing, making the CD's conclusion somewhat diminished. My only other carps are very minor. In the notes, they mention that the great English music historian, Charles Burney, was in tears when, in 1770, he heard Lotti conduct his own music at St. Marks. Burney should have been in tears, since Lotti had been dead for 30 years. And while this recording strives for as much historical accuracy in music & performance as possible, the Gregorian chant, in music & performance, is the early 20th c. version of the Solesmes monks. I love the Solesmes chant music & style. But a part of me wishes that the Gregorian chant of that time had been used. It would have been intriguing, perhaps even more stunning in alternation with the 17th c. polyphony, which is how it was often used liturgically in Holy Week.

Ah, but this is all small stuff. If you're a fan of "pre-Baroque" choral music, buy this CD. It's well worth it.

This CD encompasses many moods, but above all, is very calming. Listening to this music allows one to explore a very spiritual side of one's self and begin an introspective inquiry. I highly recommend this to anyone who appreciates the sounds of a beautiful choir.