COMPOSERS: Allegri,Handel,Tallis,Vivaldi
LABELS: Decca Double Decca
ALBUM TITLE: Collection: Great Choral Classics
WORKS: Coronation Anthems; Gloria; Miserere; Spem in alium
PERFORMER: Choir of King’s College, Cambridge/David Willcocks
CATALOGUE NO: 452 949-2 ADD 1959-66
Heady stuff. Voices don’t soar much higher or purer than these heavenly bodies from King’s College. The treble Roy Goodman’s bell-like tone in Allegri’s Miserere represents a pinnacle of perfection by which all other performances must be judged. The recordings, some of them nearly forty years old, have a pleasant natural balance and fully exploit the wonderful chapel acoustics, but those accustomed to modern clarity may find the tape hiss and ever-threatening compression rather irksome. Christopher Lambton
Handel, Vivaldi, Allegri, Tallis
Heady stuff. Voices don’t soar much higher or purer than these heavenly bodies from King’s College. The treble Roy Goodman’s bell-like tone in Allegri’s Miserere represents a pinnacle of perfection by which all other performances must be judged. The recordings, some of them nearly forty years old, have a pleasant natural balance and fully exploit the wonderful chapel acoustics, but those accustomed to modern clarity may find the tape hiss and ever-threatening compression rather irksome. Christopher Lambton
Our rating
4
Published: January 20, 2012 at 2:28 pm