40 Voices (2007)

This CD, a recording of a live performance by Paul van Nevel's choir of mixed voices, Huelgas Ensemble, features a program that is fraught with peril -- large-scale a cappella Renaissance music with 12 to 40 individual parts. To make it through such a treacherous program without a tonal train wreck would be an achievement, but the ensemble performs not only with precision and beauty of tone, remarkable accomplishments in themselves in music of this density, but with an expressiveness that makes the esoteric repertoire ... Read More

This CD, a recording of a live performance by Paul van Nevel's choir of mixed voices, Huelgas Ensemble, features a program that is fraught with peril -- large-scale a cappella Renaissance music with 12 to 40 individual parts. To make it through such a treacherous program without a tonal train wreck would be an achievement, but the ensemble performs not only with precision and beauty of tone, remarkable accomplishments in themselves in music of this density, but with an expressiveness that makes the esoteric repertoire genuinely moving and pulse quickening. Van Nevel brings the pieces a fluidity and energy that keep them from being the monolithic walls of sound they could easily become. The music brings oceanic images to mind -- teeming, swirling, surging, majestic waves of sound slowly turning over and over on themselves. Tallis wrote his 40-voice Spem in alium, the most famous piece in this collection, in response to Alessandro Striggio's 40-voice Ecce beatam lucem, which had made a huge sensation... Read Less

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2007, Harmonia Mundi UPC: 794881818662 SACD See All