'Welcome intimacy' and 'fresh-sounding style' - 9.10.06

[CD Review: ‘Miserere’ SIGCD085] BBC Music Magazine October 2006 – 5*

...The programme is a pot-pourri, and one from which emanates the refined scent of the collegiate choir, a la King’s or Trinity. The tuning is impeccable, the blend unimpeachable. Director Nigel Short was a member of the King’s Singers for seven years, and their signature soft fuzziness of tone also plays a part in the Tenebrae sound. Indeed the strength of Tenebrae, their brand, if you like, is the breadth of range from almost kitschy murmuring to the full-throated beltissimo. The former brings welcome intimacy to the Britten Hymn to St Cecilia, while the latter powerfully propels Holst’s Psalm 148 to its conclusion, albeit in youthful, fresh-sounding style. The disc ends with that locus classicus of English choral singing, Faire is the Heaven, in which one would be forgiven for thinking Spenser’s final words,’such endlesse perfectnesse’ refer to the choir themselves rather than the state of Heaven. Some successful spatial effects in the engineering, and overall nicely captured.

Performance 5 stars
Sound 5 stars