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From the arresting opening eruption, reminiscent of the famous ‘O fortuna’ from Carl Orff’s “Carmina burana”, it is instantly clear that this is a passionate performance of a powerful work. Through its ensuing myriad contrasts, the peerless skill and unwavering dedication of Polyphony, the Britten Sinfonia, soloists and conductor Stephen Layton result in a compelling performance of Pawel...
There has never been a wealth of satisfying recordings of Handel’s "Chandos Anthems" available, so admirers of the works should be grateful for Hyperion’s release three of the eleven anthems, especially because they are exceptionally well performed and recorded. Skilled and seasoned conductor Stephen Layton leads the Trinity College Choir, Cambridge, the Academy of Ancient Music, and a quartet of...
Memorable and impressive moments - but no big sweep to these stations
Hyperion's earlier disc of Lukaszewski's music (A/08) left me feeling that the Polish composer's idiom was short-breathed, although highly effective at conjuring up specific atmospheric moments. This second disc, whose theme is the Stations of the Cross (15 rather than 14 in Lukaszewski's version), does not radically alter my...
This is a near-hour-long oratorio for three soloists, chorus and orchestra, and a narrator speaking in Latin, by the contemporary Polish composer Pawel Lukaszewski, who is now 40. Stephen Layton has previously recorded a selection of his shorter sacred Latin motets (reviewed in September 2008), but Via Crucis is infinitely more ambitious, a through-composed setting of biblical texts all related...
Handel was fundamentally a theatrical composer, in the sense that no matter what the genre, his guiding principle seems to have been that the ultimate purpose of music is to entertain, to keep the audience in--if not on the edge of--their seats, and to keep them coming back for more. Even his sacred works have the power to profoundly affect listeners of all kinds--how else do you explain, say,...
Gabriel Jackson is a Bermuda-born Englander who descends from an Anglican clergyman and has himself an intense devotion to that confession, though he describes it as unconventional. But his interests do seem pegged to liturgical choral music despite the fact that he composes in other forms as well. One particular obsession seems to be with the Tudor tradition of Tallis, Browne, and Carver, their...