Editorial Reviews

A lovely selection of a cappella choral works beautifully recorded, there are only two real problems with the 1998 Virgin recording Lux Aeterna with David Hill leading the Winchester Cathedral Choir. The program does at first appear odd -- Barber's "Agnus Dei" and Pärt's "Magnificat" and Taverner's "Song for Athene" coupled with Mozart's "Ave Verum Corpus" and Tallis "O nata lux de lumine" and Victoria's "O sacrum convivum"? -- but the music's shared subject -- infinity and eternity -- presents a convincing unity. And the recording itself is superlative. Rich, deep, round, and warm, it's about as fine an a cappella choral recording as there is.

Unfortunately, the disc's two drawbacks are fairly sizeable -- and ultimately disqualifying. First, the boy sopranos of the Winchester Cathedral Choir more often than not go flat above the staff and thereby make the whole choir sound slightly out of tune. Getting through Barber's "Agnus Dei" with its painfully out-of-tune climax is exceedingly unpleasant. Second, while most of the music here is first rate, some of it is second or even third rate. One cannot, of course, quibble about Barber and Mozart, nor can one object to Pärt or Taverner. But including Wood's syrupy "Hail, gladdening light" and Hill's sentimental "Domunus illuminatio" greatly diminishes the first-rate works on the program. Thus, while surely not terrible, this disc is still too long a way from enjoyable. James Leonard, All Music Guide

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