Bruckner: Mass in E Minor, Motets
Choir of King's College Cambridge, Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Sir Stephen Cleobury
Mostly the pieces here are austere, and none approaches the grandeur of Bruckner’s biggest choral works. But they are unostentationally moving, and never more than on this, Cleobury’s last disc.
Bruckner: Mass in E Minor, Motets
Choir of King's College Cambridge, Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Sir Stephen Cleobury
Purchase product
Mostly the pieces here are austere, and none approaches the grandeur of Bruckner’s biggest choral works. But they are unostentationally moving, and never more than on this, Cleobury’s last disc.
About
Bruckner's E Minor Mass and a selection of his profoundly beautiful motets were selected by Sir Stephen Cleobury as his last album at King's, recorded only a few months before his death. Perhaps the deepest and most spiritual of Bruckner's masses, the 'Mass in E minor' is unusual in its scoring for choir, wind and brass. It is recorded here by the Choir of King's College, Cambridge and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields in King's College Chapel. The album is accompanied by a specially-commissioned Appreciation for Sir Stephen, written by Professor Iain Fenlon, as well as Shades of the Past in Bruckner's Sacred Music - another commissioned essay on Bruckner's works by Dr. Martin Ennis.
Contents and tracklist
Awards and reviews
March 2021
Mostly the pieces here are austere, and none approaches the grandeur of Bruckner’s biggest choral works. But they are unostentationally moving, and never more than on this, Cleobury’s last disc.
March 2021
Cleobury’s long experience in this music shows, as does his understanding of King’s Chapel’s generously resonant acoustics. His 2019 singers come up trumps time and time again, delivering not only some exquisite soft singing but also, when required, plenty of full-throated – though never harsh – fortissimos.
March/April 2021
The Choir of King’s College, Cambridge lives up to its lofty standards with its immaculate intonation, perfect attacks and releases, evenness of tone throughout the range, and ethereal pianissimos. The engineering is as remarkable as the singing.
December 2020
A feature that sets Cleobury’s version apart from most other recordings is the use of boys’ voices for the soprano and alto parts, heard immediately in the haunting a cappella opening of the Kyrie, the trebles sounding strikingly pure and radiant...Another feature of Cleobury’s recording is the fleetness of the interpretation...I never felt that the performance was too fast, however, the choice of tempos throughout in keeping with the freshness of the approach and the modest scale of the forces employed.
31st October 2020
It’s refreshing to hear this music sung with the urgent energy of boys’ voices, the textures almost raw. Their Locus iste soars gloriously in the King’s chapel acoustic.
