Babar Ages 3 4 Music : O Magnum Mysterium

O Magnum Mysterium

£9.59

  1. If Ye Love Me
  2. A New Commandment
  3. O Vos Omnes
  4. O Magnum Mysterium
  5. O Magnum Mysterium
  6. O Magnum Mysterium
  7. Praise The Name Of The Lord
  8. Der Entfernten
  9. Wondrous Love
  10. Amazing Grace
  11. Sometimes I Feel Like Moanin
  12. Totus Tuus

Robert Shaw. The name has travelled perhaps further than the true appreciation of his actual contribution to 20th-century choral music. Yet there are so many fine Telarc recordings showing just what a distinguished conductor Shaw was. Try his Verdi Requiem, for example, or the Dvorák Stabat Mater. Here, as if in memoriam, is a collection of slow-moving unaccompanied (largely sacred) music recorded at various times and places. Those who prefer their a cappella sound lean and white (especially in Tallis and Victoria) should look elsewhere. The sound is generally pretty fat and warm, although thankfully unbesmirched by wobble. But the control of the long legato lines is exceptional, the balance between voices meticulous, phrasing admirable. Acoustics vary--some are swimmy. High spots are Poulenc s O Magnum Mysterium and the towering lines of Khvalite imya Gospodne from the Rachmaninoff Vespers, which contains an outrageous yet unintentional coup de théâtre in the shape of a tolling bell sounding from a nearby church. Music best heard horizontal. The unvarying diet of slow may get to you in the end--not helped by the final item, Górecki s haunting Totus Tuus, being more ponderous than need be. --Andrew Green

Beautiful and pure ecstasy... - Listening to this recording is like sitting in a small gothic stone church in the South of France.The 12 works collected here span from the 16th century to the 20th century,but the performances,interpretations and acoustics make all of the music sound immediate and contemporary.The title text,translated as O Great Mystery, is featured in three separate compositions by Victoria,Lauridsen and Poulenc.The mystery ostensibly deals with the incarnation,but these fresh but timeless,sensitive but vital,performances seems to lovingly embrace both heaven and earth.The words are specially Christian,but the music delicately exults in the universal dichotomies of temporal and eternal,real and ideal.Anyone familiar with choral literature from the Renaissance period will recognize that they are renewed with vibrancy and beauty.They are a real delight showing the skill of Shaw to achieve both a perfect balance between the voices,tonal beauty and superb artistic expression.All of these versions vibrate with an indescribable beauty that has the power to leave the listener in tears at its transcendent,soaring melodies,and evocative imagery.One could only imagine what miracles might happen if everyone would spend even a few minutes caught up in O VOS OMMNES and O MAGNUM MYSTERIUM.




O Magnum Mysterium