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"A great thing, a revelation of
importance, and very well performed, with just the right degree of fervour!. I
bought it as soon as it was released." Bruno Turner
Organists' Review May 2003
According
to the concisely informative notes, it is a wonder, given the political
upheavals in 19th century Spain, that there was any sacred music at all. Not
until 1903 was its importance re- established. On this CD we have almost 80
minutes of excellent music, interpreted by the brilliant young director Carlos
Fernández Aransay. Some of the names will certainly be well-known from
compositions in other media, but many of the others may well be encountered for
the first time; the great majority of these pieces are world premiere
recordings.
The
first piece on the CD, a psalm from the
Office for the Dead by Albéniz, is slow, predominantly chordal and sombre and
sets the mood beautifully. The Salve setting by Granados has some
imaginative organ phrases as interludes, whilst in the setting by Bréton a
chant introduces a more modern idiom. One of the best pieces on the disc is the Salve
by Ledesma, an organist from Aragon. The Salutaris by Vives has an
organ accompaniment with repeated chords in the LH, and is almost operatic;
after a soprano solo the full choir enters for the repetition of the text. The
setting by Arriaga, who died aged only 20 in 1826, is much gentler - one can
only wonder what the boy may have produced had he lived longer. Sor's O Crux has
a finely melodic soprano line, and the two pieces by Eslava (better known,
perhaps, for his comprehensive organ method) are simple and effective, Bone
Pastor being a rare work here in triple time. The two pieces by Barbieri
both have some highly dramatic word-painting, here rendered with precision by
the choir. L'herba de l'amor by Granados has a nicely intonated soprano
solo, (the text is sung in Catalan), leading to a gradual build up of voices. In
similar vein is the build up in Qui manducat by de Monasterio. Vicente
Goicoechea's Christe Factus est is highly chromatic. Despite many of them
being slow in pace and frequently dark in mood, the other works all have their
own charm, and the director's enthusiasm and love for this music is evident
'Thee choir have responded with an excellent disciplined performance, and Tansy
Castledine's sympathetic organ accompaniment is never obtrusive.
The
accompanying booklet gives an interesting historical background and brief notes
on the composers, the specification of the organ used (Exeter College, Oxford),
and especially useful for those wishing to explore the pieces for themselves
there is a list of the publishers of the modern editions. For the reviewer, it
was a an wonderful introduction to Spanish choral music of the post-Baroque; I
do hope that Carios Aransay will make many more such recordings to bring us the
riches of this repertoire. John Collins
Gramophone Critics' Choice/CDs of the Year 2002
"For my disc of the year I turn to an enchanting collection of rare Spanish sacred choral music exquisitely performed by Coro Cervantes under Carlos Fernández Aransay, the title of the disc being drawn from a lovely song by Fernando Sor, o Crux."
Marc Rochester
BBC Classical Music on line - December 2002 http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/classical/reviews/coro_crux.shtml
If most British listeners have an image at all of Spanish choral music, it will be of Renaissance masters such as Victoria and Lobo, who brought a special fervour to the seamless 16th-century contrapuntal style.
So neglected is 19th-century Spanish choral music that the majority of recordings on this disc, recently selected by Gramophone as a Critics Choice CD of the year, are world premičres. The Coro Cervantes - Britain's only professional group devoted to Hispanic classical repertoire - and their director Carlos Fernández Aransay are clearly on a mission of discovery and recovery. Their zeal shines forth in these performances, whose passion is balanced by finely-nuanced direction and precise ensemble.
The excitement of discovery is especially palpable in the first four tracks of the disc, which in their awestruck polyphony capture something of the spirit and technique of the Renaissance greats, from the numinous opening of Albéniz's a capella psalm setting to Vicente Goioechea's impassioned Christus Factus est, via some splendid organ fanfares in Granados' Salve Regina and a perfect minute-long sliver of a motet by Falla.
The appearance of great names such as Albéniz, Granados, Falla and Sor in the unfamiliar guise of sacred choral music is one of the best surprises of the collection.
At just under 80 minutes and with 19 tracks this disc is good value, though such a rich feast demands a lot of the musical digestion. Every work but one is in Latin, and the acoustic and organ of Exeter College chapel, Oxford make for a somewhat uniform texture - albeit wonderfully mellow and full-bodied across a well-balanced recording.
But thoughtful programming is very helpful here, with a capella numbers and those with organ accompaniment alternating to vary the texture, and several works featuring a solo part peppered throughout. There's also a range of idiom and mood, from the sublime intimacy of the more modern opening numbers to the light-hearted and operatic, by way of Francisco Barbieri's dramatic word-painting and Pedrell's densely syllabic settings.
If at times the quality of the music seem uneven, this is probably a fair reflection of a period in which Spanish church music seems to have been under attack from all sides, as first Napoleonic invaders and later the Spanish government itself seized church assets, closed music chapels and finally banned lay musicians from performing in churches. Hardly surprising that the choral tradition became somewhat impoverished as a result - which makes the care and attention that have clearly gone into assembling what is generally a very strong collection all the more impressive.
Matthew Shorter
International Record Review - December 2002
"The cover of O Crux suggests a programme of Spanish choral music from the age of Victoria. But no, it's actually a series of a cappella sacred music written in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Albéniz, Granados, Manuel de Falla and Fernando Sor as we have never heard them before: caught up in the mystery of religion and drawing imaginatively, and often very audibly, on the styles of their illustrious ancestors. Coro Cervantes richly convey the intensity and excitement of the discovery."
Simon Heighes
Diverdi Magazine - November 2002:
"This is an exceptional CD,
because of the novelty of its repertoire, its historical importance and the
quality of the performance...The music is performed by a superb British choir,
Coro Cervantes, funded in 1995 by Carlos Fernández Aransay, an enterprising and
extremely well-prepared Spanish maestro...judging by the standards achieved in
this recording, they deserve every support and incentive from the Spanish and
Latin American institutions.
Aransay's decision to use 16 singers - like the famous The Sixteen- allows for a transparency and flexibility of performance, which sends into oblivion the old readings with bigger choirs.
If we add to this that Aransay has managed to extract the strong expressiveness inherent in so many Spanish choral pieces, we can state that this is a disc destined to become a landmark in the performance of modern Spanish choral music, and this is due not just to the many world premieres included in it.
Congratulations, Coro Cervantes, for this disc, a veritable spiritual gift which is indispensable to deepen in the knowledge of the Spanish musical heritage. When can we hear you live in Madrid?"
Andrés Ruiz Tarazona
Gramophone Magazine - October 2002:
An entertaining British take on rare 19th century Spanish choral music.
Political
upheavals in Spain during the 19th century have been overshadowed by
those of the 20th century, yet, as Carlos Aransay points out in his
fascinating booklet essay, for virtually the entire 19th century
political manoeuvrings had an absolutely catastrophic effect on Spanish sacred
music. With male religious orders and boys' choirs abolished, music chapels
decimated and only ordained priests allowed to perform music in church, it seems
astonishing that Aransay has managed to find enough worthwhile music to fill a
single disc, let alone as generously as this. Certainly some of this music comes
from obscure composers such as Vicente Goicoechea -represented by a sumptuous a
cappella setting of "Christus factus est" and a distinguished
"Ave Maria" for male voices and organ - and Amadeo Vives, whose
decidedly operatic "O Salutaris" provides a splendid vehicle for the
vocally red-blooded Debra Skeen. But there is also a surprising number of names
whose reputations have been made in very different fields; Albéniz, clearly
pre-empting the sacred music of Poulenc in his richly expressive setting of
Psalm 6, Arriaga and Granados, both of whom adopt what can be best described as
a Mendelssohnian approach, Sor, whose neat exercise in quasi 17th
century Italian polyphony gives the disc its title, and Falla, whose richly
polyphonic item from his cantata Atlántida is perhaps the one real masterpiece
here. Polished and beautifully precise as their singing is, there is no escaping
the fact that Coro Cervantes is a British choir, nor that the smooth-toned organ
and warm and comfortable acoustic, so admirably captured in this lovely
recording, belong to and Oxford College (Exeter) rather than a Spanish
cathedral. But for all their Anglican overtones, these singers, under the
clearly-focused direction of the utterly Spanish Carlos Aransay, reveal this to
be music -much of which has not previously appeared on record- of far more than
mere curiosity value; this is a disc to enjoy on many levels.
Marc
Rochester
"There are several surprises on this recording, beginning with the repertoire--19th century Spanish sacred music, much of which is recorded here for the first time and nearly all of which will be virtually unknown to choral music listeners... . anyone who's comfortable in the dense-textured, profoundly dramatic, harmonically expansive sound-world of composers such as Fauré, Liszt, and Bruckner will find much to enjoy on this generously filled (nearly 80-minute) CD.
Another surprise is Coro Cervantes--a professional London-based ensemble "dedicated solely to the Hispanic classical repertoire"--an exclusive niche if ever there was one! Not surprisingly from an English choir, the standard of ensemble singing is exceptionally high, and on both a technical and interpretive level there's nothing to fault here. (Interestingly--and unusually--I didn't recognize any of these 16 singers as belonging to any of the more prominent professional London groups, which speaks well to this choir's exclusivity and commitment to its narrow-focused vision.) Most listeners will find this program an enjoyable experience and will appreciate such ambitious and passionately wrought works as Vicente Goicoechea's (1854-1916) Ave Maria or Tomás Bretón's (1850-1923) Salve montserratina. There's much fascinating music here-- all of it worth hearing for its priceless contextual/historical importance alone...this excellent choir's performances."
David Vernier