Track Listing

1. Missa Alleluja, C.1 - Kyrie
2. Missa Alleluja, C.1 - Gloria
3. Missa Alleluja, C.1 - Alleluja
4. Missa Alleluja, C.1 - Credo
5. Missa Alleluja, C.1 - Offertorium: Stetit Angelus Iuxta Aram Templi
6. Missa Alleluja, C.1 - Sanctus, Osanna: Benedictus Osanna
7. Missa Alleluja, C.1 - Agnus Dei
8. Missa Alleluja, C.1 - Communio: Passer Invent Sibi Domum
9. Vesperae Sollennes

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #165540 in Music
• Released on: 2002-07-19
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Import

Customer Reviews

Best of the Big Bibers! SchmelzerToo!
Salzburg has had a bad rap since the apotheosis of Mozart. He despised the place as a stiff-necked provincial backwater. A generation earlier, Salzburg was surely one of the greatest musical scenes of all time, with extravagant resources available to its episcopal court composers. Heinrich Biber has emerged very recently as everybody's favorite rediscovered Baroque master. Twenty years ago, there were just a couple of LPs of his violin sonatas, but now there are pages of listings of his choral as well as his chamber music. I'm planning to review three recently-acquired performances of very large-scale ceremonial music originally performed in Salzburg cathedral: 1. Biber, "Litaniae de Sancto Josepho", Cantus Colln & Concerto Palatino; 2. Biber, "Missa Alleluja", Gradus ad Parnassum & Concerto Palatino; 3. Biber, "Missa Salisburgensis", Gabrieli Consort & Musica Antiqua Koln.

In several ways, the Missa Alleluja is the best of the three CDs, though in fact less than half of the performance is music by Biber. The Schmelzer vespers are not as bold as Biber but they are certainly also fine music. The edge goes to this CD, however, because of the very fine selection of instrumental intermezzi, brilliantly performed on cornetti, brass, and strings, and more importantly for superior recording technology. Despite the huge vocal and instrumental forces used in this performance, the voices sound "real", present and clear. There are no wolf tones, no high frequency white noises. This CD can be appreciated on reasonably good equipment at a comfortable volume level, which can't be said for the other two CDs listed above. Polychoral music of such grandeur is almost beyond reproduction. Don't ask me why; I'm not an audio equipment jock; I merely demand that recorded music sound almost as lovely as what I've heard live.

Special mention must be given to the four (4!) organists who participate in the performance, and the eight trumpeters. They are sensitive ensemble musicians. Also worthy of notice is the five-voice hymn "Coelestis urbs Jerusalem" by Palestrina", which lightens the impression of so much awesome musical grandeur. No amount of praise can be adequate for Bruce Dickey's Concerto Palatino; here they play only a supporting role, yet every time they emerge from the musical texture, I get a thrill down my spine.