Customer Reviews

Vivaldi - Gloria · Handel - Gloria · Dixit Dominus / English Baroque Soloists · Monteverdi Choir · Gardiner

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

 

 

I have Gardiner's old 1978 Gramophone winning recording of Dixit Dominus and it does sound more outgoing and in-your-face than this present recording...the choir being more "aggressive" sounding then, as if they were out to establish a name/reputation for themselves.

This recording is not "disdainful" or "languid!" Far from it! I have several choral conductor friends who appreciate the many subtleties of this recording over the 1978 version by Gardiner or the newer one from Minkowski. The string playing is outstanding...I guess John Eliot now has a deeper understanding of this work after 20 years! I would surmise that he understood that the work's tension not only rests on the voices of the singers and the choir, but also in the orchestral writing as well...listen to the tight crecendos in the string section in movement 5! It's menacing, jubilatory, tempered with enough balance of the intellect that keeps it from becoming "dull"

I see this recording as a valedictory one for John Eliot and his forces...a visionary who doesnt need to show off nor a conductor who's out to impress someone with loud voices and heavily accented/staccato readings(that was him a few decades ago!).

Get this record! Its wonderful stuff! But you also ought to get the 1978 recording of the Dixit Dominus (though it has less music in it, only Handel's Zadok the Priest is included).

Gillian Keith or Emma Kirby? That one will run and run, I imagine. Both this recording by Keith and John Eliot Gardiner and Emma Kirby's radiant performance on the premiere with Laurence Cummings and the Royal Academy of Music's Baroque Orchestra (BIS, June 2001) have much to commend them. For me, Kirby's experience puts her a little ahead, but by contrast Gardiner calls forth richer instrumental tones from his players. We now also have other choices. The Gottingen Handel Festival Edition is a live recording from their 3 June 2001 gala performance with Dominique Labelle, soprano, the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, and conductor Nicholas McGegan. And the Baroque Academy of Montreal offer another period instrument rendition on Atma Classique (ACD2 2215), accompanied by Bach and Vivaldi 'Glorias'.

Unquestionably, Gardiner's thoughtful account of the 'Dixit Dominus' is to be preferred to the archive one from 1986 on the BIS CD. But why the Vivaldi? There are better versions out there, and Gardiner of all people would have been capable of coming up with another matching Handel offering - say a Motet like 'Saeviat tellus inter rigores' or the Psalm 'Nisi Dominus'.

Still, this is a worthwhile disc. Handel's 'Gloria' is new enough to the general listening public to require a variety of interpretations and approaches. For my money Kirby will remain the benchmark soloist, but Keith has offered a spirited response

This is the most thoughtful, deeply spiritual account of Vivaldi's Gloria I've ever heard. Tempos are appropriately quick when they should be, slower and contemplative when they should be. The voices are supreme. The instruments are astonishingly rich. No trace of the brass-band kitsch that too many other versions fall into.

For lovers of the Vivaldi Gloria, a must-have.

This Soprano is not my favorite. Although she does have the early music sound. I prefer a little less strident straight tone and a little more vibrato in a high soprano's singing. She does tend to be a little flat due to this. But not many options for this recording for around this price. So I'll deal.

Great digital sound quality, especially on the excellent Dixit Dominus which is all fireworks and invention. Good value and highly recommended.

I heard a performance of these amazing choral pieces and wanted a CD. Even though they are performed by different artists, I wasn't disappointed. In fact, I bought another as a gift.

Need I say more than the title says? We're very pleased with all aspects of our purchase from this merchant.

I always approach a Gardiner recording hoping for the same thrill that his Monteverdi Vespers unfailingly give me, and I am disappointed again and again. Too often tempos are wrong-headed, balances are bizarre, soloists erratic, and the leadership deliberately willful. It seems that his flamboyance found perfect expression in Venice's San Marco one week in the late 80s. Since then.....sigh.

I'm giving this disc two stars only because of the Handel Gloria, which is indeed an attractive and inventive little piece, well sung and played. The Vivaldi is unexceptionable. The real outrage is the Dixit Dominus, one of the most vivid and exciting works in the choral repertoire. It's performed here in a languid, disdainful fashion, at tempos that jog peacefully along without urgency and with signers (both choral and solo) who sound barely interested in the force of the text or the drama of its setting. "We sing this sort of thing all the time" is the attitude, and it's deadly to this piece, which notorious for its vocal demands. Making it sound easy makes it sound dull.

Try, instead, Marc Minkowski's recent Deutsche Grammaphon version: it's recorded triumphantly live with soloists who will rock your world, and includes most of the rest of Handel's Italian music. This was a young man seeking to make an impression, and boy does he! Gardiner's Handel sounds like a bored Brill Building hack, pumping out another cantata to pay the rent.