Credo Magazine

Genaux brings a fascinating swagger to the solo motets. Her chest voice has a baritone richness; in higher registers, she can sound virginal or diva-ish. Zooming through scalar passages and leaping around registers, she turns doggerel Latin into moving statements…Urged on by Dubrovsky, the Bach Consort Wien bustles through [the Kyrie and Credo]…this performance would make Vivaldi proud.

The modern-day appreciation of Francesco Bartolomeo Conti takes a decisive turn in the direction of his church music with this early eighteenth-century composers Missa Sancti Pauli given an ideal recording on Glossa by György Vashegyi, the Purcell Choir and Orfeo Orchestra. Conti was a Florentine who worked for much of his career in the Imperial Court in Vienna, generating much attention there the ever-observant JS Bach and Zelenka were both known to have been attracted by his music.

These are world premiere recordings and these Handel specialists have once again scored a major coup. Alessandro Severo is based on the life of a Roman emperor of the third century and is in the form of a pasticcio. Manzaro composed the Greek national anthem and the discovery of an opera by him was a major find by the Greek conductor George Petrou. Armonia Atenia perform on period instruments.

Josquin des Prez - Missa Pange Lingua / Missa La Sol Fa Re Mi
The Tallis Scholars / Peter Philips
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 262 MB | Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Gimell Records # CDGIM 009 | Country/Year: UK 1986
Genre: Classical | Style: Sacred, Choral, Renaissance

"As our awards enter their fourth decade, we've paused and looked back over the first 30 years. It's gratifying to see how many of the recordings singled out for the prestigious Record of the Year have gone on to become classics of the catalogue. (…) Then there are the discs that shaped careers - violinists Nigel Kennedy (in Elgar) and Maxim Vengerov (in Prokofiev and Shostakovich) - to which you might add The Tallis Scholars' stunning disc of Masses by Josquin Desprez, a disc that elevated Early Music to the "mainstream". ~Grammophone

This is the fourth solo album from former GALAHAD member and bassist Lee Abraham and a host of guest players from the world of Progressive Rock! Given the ample musical and stylistic variety on Distant Days this is a disc that will have plenty of shelf-life.

Here's a Symphony of Psalms that successfully captures the spirit and letter of the work–reverence, jubilation, and celebration, as well as specifics of orchestral color and texture. Boys' voices–supposedly Stravinsky's original choice–contribute their share to the bright choral timbre, an effect that works very well. We also get first-rate performances of the Mass and the rarely recorded Canticum sacrum.