Is it a craving for musical simplicity, a seeking after the profoundly spiritual or just a love of beautiful sounds which has brought the music of Arvo Part, John Tavener and Henryk Gorecki to such prominence? All three composers have in common a fervent religious conviction expressed in uncomplicated and accessible musical language. In fact it is not immediately obvious from listening to this disc where Part finishes and Tavener or Gorecki takes over, so similar are their musical language and idiom. That is not to say that these works lack individuality or originality. Each in its own right is an expression of unarguably sincere emotion and immense musical beauty, and it is these two facets which are most immediately apparent from these lovingly nurtured performances.
The Vasari Singers, under their perceptive conductor, Jeremy Backhouse, are a group of the very highest calibre, but they excel even themselves here. The sound is pure, the soprano line often floating ethereally above immaculately measured harmonies, Andrew Angus’s delivery of the Priest’s words in Alan Ridout’s Litany achieving an ideal mix of dispassionate intoning and operatic fervour (the latter prompted by one surprise near-quotation from Rheingold), and the overall choral tone so perfectly blended and exquisitely balanced that it quite takes the breath away. Indicative of these composers’ popularity in the market-place is the strong representation most of this music already has in the catalogues.
Comparisons are unrealistic since couplings vary and, in any case, I have yet to hear a recording of any of these pieces which doesn’t deserve a strong recommendation. The Vasari Singers, however, do bring something distinctive to the programme, and certainly no lover of these composers’ music should be without their hypnotic performance of Part’s Beatitudes with its continual alternation of two unrelated chords and ending with a shattering organ postlude – marvellously played by John Keys.'