Recordings
“Budding singers, composers, conductors and producers everywhere take note: this is how it’s done.” Classic FM Magazine
A Spotless Rose
Adès | Bax | Des Pres | Górecki | Grieg | Howells | MacMillan | Mouton | Palestrina | Tavener | Stravinsky | Swayne
Gabrieli Consort
Paul McCreesh (conductor)
Paul McCreesh explores the vast legacy of choral music in honour of the Virgin Mary. Recorded in the breath-taking acoustics of Ely Cathedral and its Lady Chapel, Renaissance works by Josquin, Palestrina and Mouton are contrasted with their modern counterparts by Howells, Bax, Gorecki, Giles Swayne and Thomas Adès.
Excerpt: Swayne “Magnificat”
BUY: Deutsche Grammophon | Amazon
“It’s a tremendously rewarding sequence, some 13 items in all spanning no fewer than 600 years, and so cannily programmed that temporal and stylistic boundaries shift and sometimes evaporate altogether… There can be nothing but praise for the breathtaking assurance and responsiveness of McCreesh’s singers throughout… the sound is as atmospheric and voluptuous as can be imagined… this is indeed a glorious CD.”Gramophone
“This is a collection which is genuinely timeless. Hugely impressive.”International Record Review
“Time and again in this profoundly sentient collection of Marian compositions the Gabrieli Consort effectively bypass the whole self-oriented notion of ‘performance’, drawing the listener into what, in many of these pieces, is essentially a process of prayer through music… It’s magnificently sung here by the Gabrieli Consort, whom Paul McCreesh directs with passion and dedication throughout a CD I have no hesitation in labelling essential.”BBC Music Magazine
Deutsche Grammophon
GH 4777635
February 2009