DCD34124-CD

Deutsche Motette

Delphian’s superchoir reunites after its highly successful recording of Rodion Shchedrin’s The Sealed Angel (Delphian DCD34067), this time for a unique programme of German music from Schubert to Richard Strauss.

Strauss’s sumptuous Deutsche Motette is the last word in late Romantic choral opulence, its teeming polyphony brought to thrilling life by this virtuoso cast of over sixty singers. The rest of the programme explores the vivid colours and shadowy half-lights of a distinctly German music that reached its culmination in Strauss’s extravagant masterpiece. The singing throughout combines a musical intensity and imagination with an understanding of period style, two qualities that are hallmarks of both choirs’ work.

"This performance of Strauss's Deutsche Motette has the right quality of rapture...Credit to the conductor David Trendell for eliciting from his combined college choirs, whose youthful freshness to the interpretation which suits the imprecatory nature of Rückert's poem perfectly."

"The frank, forward tone of this ensemble softens the academic rigidity of the Brahms and makes a surprise highlight of Peter Cornelius's Liebe"

"Strauss’s Deutsche Motette, Op 62...is one of those multi- part, a cappella prodigies like Tallis’s Spem in alium. With its roving romantic harmony it’s even more sumptuous than that famed precursor, and comes across magnificently, clean-lined yet surging"

"it’s brimming with secure confidence, the combined choral forces producing a glorious sound under David Trendell"

"Quite frankly, these are the kind of performances that make you want to stand up and cheer even if you're the only person in the room."

"The singing throughout combines a musical intensity and imagination with an understanding of period style, that are hallmarks of both choirs' work."

CROSSRHYTHMS

Producer: Paul Baxter
Recording venue(s): Church of St John the Evangelist, Upper Norwood, London
Recording dates: 4-6 July 2012
Physical format: Jewel case
Number of discs: 1
Number of tracks: 11
Total playing time: 1:01:30
Release date: 1 July 2013
Album ID: DCD34124

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