I readily admit to being moved to tears on first hearing this disc, and innumerable playings subsequently have not fully inured me to the emotional impact of these intense performances of profoundly beautiful music. Whether it’s ancient plainchant or the passionate outpourings of twentieth-century East European composers the effect is the same: music which through fervent religious feeling reaches into the very depths of the human soul.
The logic of this programme, juxtaposing two very different responses to religious texts is not entirely apparent to me. The twentieth-century works are not directly influenced by the plainchant of the Western Catholic church yet neither are they all rooted in the Eastern Orthodox tradition. It is the second (1949) version of Stravinsky’s Credo that is performed here – setting the Catholic rather than the Orthodox text – while both Panufnik and Penderecki were practising Catholics. Indeed only Rachmaninov’s gorgeous pieces give us the genuinely Orthodox view – and that from a man who was not himself a staunch follower of the faith.
Frankly, though, with music as indescribably beautiful as this and performances which are of almost breathtaking artistry, who needs logic in programming? The climax of Penderecki’s Cherubic Hymn is measured to absolute perfection, every last ounce of passion squeezed from the long-drawn-out build-up to this shattering moment: the chanted Pater noster has that timeless quality which seems to come from another world – enhanced, as is everything on this disc, by a deliciously atmospheric recording. If there is a niggling reservation it is in the lack of real bass resonance, especially in the Rachmaninov. By the very nature of its make-up an English collegiate choir will never possess mens’ voices with the kind of maturity you would hear in a Russian Orthodox choir. But if it’s a question of fully matured vocal resonance or committed, sensitive and musically perceptive singing, I’d opt for the latter any day.
And that’s precisely what we have here on one of the very finest discs to have come from King’s during Stephen Cleobury’s tenure as Director.'