Reviews for
GMCD 7148 - Crucifixus
Music for Holy Week
From American Record Guide - May/June 1999
Palestrina: Sabat Mater; LOTTI: Crufixus a6;a8 a10; Anerio: Christus
factus est; Allegri:Cmiserere; GESULDA: O vos Omnes; CALDARA: Curcifixus
a16; SCARLATTI,D: Stabat Mater
Vasari Singers / Jeremy Backhouse
This recording brings together classic works for Holy Week bz Italian composers from
the late 16th to the early 18th centuries. Some of the works, like
the Palestrina Stabat Mater and Gregorio Allegri’s Miserere, are very
well known.
The Program opens with the Palestrina and concludes with Domenico Scarlatti’s setting
of the same text. I will confess that this is my first acquaintance with the Scarlatti Stabat
Mater, an early work most likelzy written in Rome during his tenure as maestro di
capella of the Basilica Giulia (1713 – 19). It is a more expansive setting than
Palestrina’s, but then, who could ever top the deceptively simple eloquence of the
concise masterpiece? Scarlatti’s setting is in ten parts with continuo. His expert
counterpoint seems natural and spontaneous, at the service of the larger expressive
purpose of the music.
Every second work on the program is a motet oin the text "Grucifixus etiam pro
nobis" from the Nicene Creed. The three settings by Antonio Lotti (c 1667-1740), in
six, eight and ten parts, seem to explore the different facets of the anguished and
impassioned expression suggested by the text. An impressive 16 part setting by Antonio
Caldara (c1670 – 1736) precedes the concluding Scarlattis Stabat Mater.
It seems that highly accomplished English concert choirs are springing up up faster than
weeds. Jeremy Backhouse and the Vasari Singers are new to me, and the booklet gives no
information about them other than photographs. The group photograph shows a mixed choir of
26 voices. I assume that they take their name form the 16th century art
historian Giorgio Vasari. That together with the content of this disc suggests that they
specialise in Italian renaissance and baroque repertory. Like so many English choirs their
sound is smooth and well-blended. The basic tone is very warm, further enhanced by the
acoustics of St. James’s Church, Clerkenwell Green, London. Backhouse’s
interpretations are anything but dispassionate. Even in as understated a work as the
Palestrina Stabat Mater, he introduces dramatic, almost romantic dynamic
inflections that give the performance a vivid shape and propulsion. The singers
demonstrate that they have plenty of power for the most stunning climaxes, but their tone
never becomes wild or operatic.
The Allegri,Miserere seems to be performed from the corrupt but widely-accepted
edition of Sir Ivor Atkins. The semi-chorus verses sound distant and somewhat compressed,
apparently an attempt to give the impression of spatial separation.
Apart from some untidy solo singing in the ‘Inflammatus of Scarlatti;sStabat Mater,
these performances display and extraordinarily high level of technical polish. The music
is magnificent and the program is effectively planned with the Allegri as the centerpiese,
flanked by the shorter motets of Anerio and Gesualdo, the ‘Crucifixus’ motets
intervening and the Stabat Mater settings to open and close
Gatens
From Cathedral Music - April 1999
How often one sees "Music for Holy Week"
advertised as a concert. Well, here is that concert come true and most beautifully done
too. The Vasari Singers are as expert and experienced in this music as their director
Jeremy Backhouse. So the performances can almost be taken for granted so expert is the
singing. Lovely actual sound, perfection in blend and balance with a feel for the lead of
entries, all with a fine range of dynamics. The programme offers a number of delights, one
of them the chance to hear three Crucifixus settings by Antonio
Lotti in 6, 8 and 10 vocal parts. The famous Miserere of Allegri us given with
conjectural parts written by Ivor Atkins, complete with top Cs so memorably by generations
of boy choristers. The ladies of Vasari do not sound like boys but still float the high
parts beautifully (slight reservation about intonation here). Actually after all that
penitential polyphony it is a relief to join jolly old Scarlatti for a more baroque Stabat
Mater. This appropriately brings a change of tonal style, in addition to instrumental
accompaniment. Altogether a most successful recording, nicely captured by Guild engineers.
Peter Moorse
From Choir & Organ Magazine March/April 1999
Visits to the Capella Sistina are also made in Crucifixus, a collection of
multi-part music for Holy Week sund by the Vasari singers under Jeremy Backhouse. This
'Cream-cake' complilation form the Billy Bunter school of programming will, no doubt,
delight all their fans who want these popular Renaissance and Baroque works on one disc,
and it is doubtful if any of the world's leading amateur chamber choirs could do it
better. It speaks volumes for the group's dedication and commitment, but one can't help
feeling that Backhouse has done his singers a disservice be not resisting the temptation
to stretch his forces too far. They sing with well-blended tone, wide dynamic rance, and
only occasional lapses of intonation. It's all attractively done, if somewhat over
directed at times, with rhetorically exaggerated dynamics making Gesualdo's O vos
omnes sound like a fifth sacred piece by Verdi! On the whole they are impressively
secure in the more simply-scored repertoire which, ans any choral singer can vouch, is not
by any means easy to do well. It does them credit that the sustained sonorities of
Palestrina's Stabat Matar and Felice Anerio's Christus factus est are so
movingly captured, and they clearly appreciate the dissonance and tension in works by
Gesualdo and Lotti. Where things become fragile are in the multi-voice works: Allegri's Miserere,,
Caldara's Crucifixus and the Stabat Matar of Domenico Scarletti, which
rely heavily on soloists. An admirably courageous recording.
Paul Cutts
From Organist - February 1999
This disc contains both some of the best-loved
Passiontide polyphony and a number of items that have only recently become better known.
It is good to see Lotti’s three versions of the Crucifixus on
the same recording - whilst the eight-part setting is ever popular, the ten-voice version
is a work of great intensity whose long lines are conveyed superbly here. The opening of O
vos omnes by Gesualdo is perhaps a little robust for some tastes on this recording,
but the commitment of the performers to the tortured harmonic vocabulary of the work,
which can still sound surprising four centuries after its composition, is never in doubt.
The concluding work in the selection is Domenico
Scarlatti’s setting of the Stabat Mater. This work is scored for ten voices
and continuo, with four soprano voices contributing fundamentally to the timbre of the
composition. Jeremy Backhouse produces a performance that is compelling in its sense of
line, with the climaxes suitably expansive. The Vasari Singers produce some highly
controlled singing, with the flexibility necessary to mould the often sinuous lines
together. The disc is worth buying for this work alone - the combination with the other
gems from the repertoire makes it a must.
From Church Music Quarterly - Januar
1999
Crucifixus sung by the Vasari Singers,
conducted by Jeremy Backhouse is a treasure-trove of music for Holy Week, comprising
motets by Palestrina, Lotti, Anerio, Allegri, Gesualdo and Caldara; and Dominico
Scarlatti’s Stabat Mater. Sadly, these jewels do not shine as brightly as they
might. While the Vasari Singers exhibit excellent ensemble in their performances, and an
admirable clarity of attack, there is a flatness in their tone which, while arguable
appropriate to penitential music, becomes somewhat oppressive in the course of the disc
and leads to some imperfections of intonation.
From Gramophone - November 98 Issue
The Italian Way of the cross is sweet with voices that intertwine like a crown of
thorns trimmed with honeysuckle.
Antonio Lotti's eight-part Crucifixus is the famous one, but here are the six-
and ten-part settings too. A small masterpices is Gesualdo's O vos omnes, a large
one Scarlatti's Stabat mater. All are sung with feeling and skill.
JBS
From Classic CD - November 1998 Issue
The work of a younger choir, Jeremy Backhouse's Vasari Singers, can be sampled in
Crucifixus, a programme of music for Holy Week on the Guild label. There isn't quite the
same level of extraordinary technical accomplishment here, but Vasari are certainly no
slouches, and sing in a potently affecting way. There are works by Palestrina, Lotti and
Gesualdo, but I was particularly taken by the one large-scale setting, a 27-minute Stabat
Mater by Domenico Scarlatti (he of the 555 harpsichord sonatas fame), which is very fine
indeed (GMCD 7148, ****)
From BBC Music Magazine November 1998
The Vasari Singers are an amateur choir, and a very fine one. If they need a split
second for chords to settle, for voices to focus, the pay-off is a captivating ardour and
commitment. Momentary slips, of intonation below a gloriously effortless soprano top C in
Allegri's Miserere, of hard-driven soloists in the liveliest sections of Scarlatti's
Stabat mater - these are a small price to pay for such a fresh, enthusiastic sound.
The Singers, and Backhouse, are fearless too. This taxing programme begins with seven
unaccompanied pieces in which pitch remains admirably stable - Palestrina's eight-part
Stabat mater, 'Crucifixus' settings in six, eight and ten parts by Lotti, the harmonic
maze of a Gesualdo motet.
High spots for me are the almost unbearably tortured harmonies of Lotti's six-part
Crucifixus, the dense, enveloping sonority of his eight-part setting, the spaciousness of
both distant semi-chorus and of slow-paced chant in Allegri's Miserere. Another Crucifixus
by Caldara is denser still - in 16 parts from this 26-strong choir - with a hypnotic
harmonic sequence surrounding Christ's entombment.
Excellent recorded sound capitalises on the acoustics of a fine London church,
retaining a 'presence' with sustained ambient sound between the tracks.
George Pratt
PERFORMANCE **** (Very Good)
SOUND ***** (Excellent)
From The Organ (DWe) - Vol. 78 No. 307
Despite the restricted theme of this disc there’s
no lack of variety either in content or in the mode of performance. Lotti’s three
settings of the Crucifixus have piercing dissonances and magically controlled diminuendi
à 6; tensions created by dynamic contrasts à 8; and a starkness in the exposed entries
à 10. The thick textures of Caldara’s à 16 use stile antico techniques in
capturing a Baroque splendour similar to that of an El Greco painting.
Palestrina’s Stabat Mater and Anerio’s Christus
factus est are more euphonious, and Gesualdo’s O vos omnes has a vigorous
directness, not what you might expect from a murderer, and far removed from the expressive
extravagance of some of his madrigals. Equally surprising for those who are encountering
Domenico Scarlatti’s Stabat Mater à 10 will be the composer’s high
quality technique and inspiration. It is all far removed from the sparkling harpsichord
sonatas with which his name is associated, and the performance, like most of the other
tracks, is exemplary.
Allegri’s Miserere faces strong competition
on disc. The opening is atmospherically right, remote and impersonal with boyish soprano
tone and easily-negotiated cadenzas. However, somewhat surprisingly, the supporting under
parts sound insecure at these points when judged by the highest standards, as would be
appropriate for the Vasari Singers.
From Cathedral Classical Newsletter, Issue 8 - September
1998
This is an outstanding disc, not only in terms of
repertoire but also in performance. Lotti’s three settings of ‘Crucifixus’
are particularly welcome.
Page revised 03.09.2000
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