Rating: 1/5
Review:
Very disappointing
I’m afraid I don’t like this recording at all. Pierre de la
Rue’s music is quite wonderful, I think, but it doesn’t get much
of a chance here. Firstly, the instrumental parts are harsh and
over-dominant, which already puts de la Rue’s fabulous polyphony at
a disadvantage. Worse, the voices have no blend or coherence at all
in a lot of the music. It is typified by the opening “Requiem”
sung by a very low, rather strained and wholly unresonant bass, while
other voices and instruments then pile in sounding as though none is
listening to anyone else. It sounds, frankly, horrible to my ears
and has absolutely none of the spiritual depth or spare beauty one
would expect from de la Rue’s setting of the Requiem.
I’m sorry to be so
critical, but I really can’t get on with this at all. There are
very fine recordings available of de la Rue’s Requiem by Capella
Pratensis, Ensemble Officium and (if you can still find it) The
Clerk’s Group. My advice is to try one of them and give this a
wide berth.
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