Hot on the heels of their glorious recording of Handel’s Ode for St Cecilia (SA)CDA67463, Robert King, Carolyn Sampson and James Gilchrist are here joined by a host of further soloists for this third volume of Monteverdi’s sacred music. The programme opens with the ebullient second setting of the Dixit Dominus and ends with the seven-voice Gloria, surely one of Monteverdi’s most impressive sacred works and one which is thought to have been part of a ceremonial Mass written to mark to the end of the 1630 plague outbreak in Venice. In between these two pillars of the repertoire come nine motets and Psalms, including the famous Christe, adoramus whose long-breathed phrases become the perfect vehicle to show off the intense range of colours Robert King so effortlessly draws out from his performers. This new recording is available in multichannel hybrid DSD SACD and conventional CD formats.
CLASSICAL CDs OF THE YEAR 2004 (The Daily Telegraph)
'The warmly enveloping acoustic is exactly right for this opulent, exciting music; and Robert King’s trusty group disport themselves with the usual trim gusto. With performances like these I’d be happy if this series rolled on forever' (The Times)
'No Monteverdi enthusiast will want to be without this superb selection … Robert King's light-footed approach to the big pieces, with brisk speeds and crisp, springy rhythms, keeps up both the momentum and the excitement to produce some thrilling climaxes' (The Daily Telegraph)
'It would be difficult to praise these performances to highly … the clarity and sheer élan here defeat close rival performances by William Christie and Konrad Junghänel' (BBC Music Magazine)
'We have come to expect nothing but first rate perfomances from Robert King and his colleagues, and this recording does not disappoint. Hyperion's recorded sound is clear but warm, sumptuous, and intense, as befits the music' (American Record Guide)
'this is another fine issue to add to a series that has now firmly established its credentials as yet one more (brilliently plumed) feather in the respective caps of King and Hyperion' (Fanfare, USA)
Recording details: February 2004; St Jude-on-the-Hill, Hampstead Garden Suburb, London, United Kingdom; Produced by Ben Turner; Engineered by Jonathan Stokes & Philip Hobbs; Release date: November 2004;
