COMPOSERS: Croft,Purcell
LABELS: EMI
ALBUM TITLE: Collection: Funeral Music
WORKS: Funeral Music for Queen Mary; Funeral Sentences; The Burial Service
PERFORMER: Winchester Cathedral Choir, Baroque Brass of London/Martin Neary
CATALOGUE NO: CDM 5 66683 2
This CD, of predominantly slow music, doesn’t begin too enticingly, with a rather underpowered and four-square performance of Purcell’s marvellous Funeral Music for Queen Mary. But things improve later on: there is some good solo singing, notably from the countertenor David Hurley in Humfrey’s Hymne to God the Father; the choral sound is well blended and recorded, and the music begins to breathe – Purcell’s Jehovah, quam multi sunt hostes has a real shape to it. For sampling rather than straight-through listening. Martin Cotton
Purcell, Croft
This CD, of predominantly slow music, doesn’t begin too enticingly, with a rather underpowered and four-square performance of Purcell’s marvellous Funeral Music for Queen Mary. But things improve later on: there is some good solo singing, notably from the countertenor David Hurley in Humfrey’s Hymne to God the Father; the choral sound is well blended and recorded, and the music begins to breathe – Purcell’s Jehovah, quam multi sunt hostes has a real shape to it. For sampling rather than straight-through listening. Martin Cotton
Our rating
3
Published: January 20, 2012 at 2:28 pm