This good coupling is now getting on for twenty years of age.
It’s engaging, enjoyable and what one should now call ‘middle
of the road’; modern instruments employed with crispness and bite,
rhythmically well sprung and accompanying the usual roster of
heavyweight singers whose fruitier vibratos create the often encountered
imbalance between vocalists and instrumentalists.
This will be more
of a burden to some than to others. What’s true to say is that
the Et in terra pax of Vivaldi’s Gloria is raptly sustained
and that the Laudamus te is imbued with the Old School,
rather sinewy vibratos that make the disparities noted above
so evident. Celia Nicklin’s oboe shines in the Gratias agimus
and the chorus, so well trained by their chorus master Laszlo
Heltay, displays their accustomed warmth yet incisive buoyancy
– and good blend. Nice orchestral string separation, as well,
as one might expect from Marriner given that he was such a good
fiddle player in his youth. There is special strength and gravity
in Qui tollis which is, if anything, where the choral
singing is at its zenith. Clearly this is a very over-competitive
field but Marriner and the Academy always cultivated the important
knack of wedding finesse to vitality, as this recording amply
shows.
There are comparable
qualities and virtues to be heard in the Bach Magnificat. Once
again individual and collective instrumental excellences abound
– such as the oboe d’amore in Quia respexit for instance.
There’s an apposite gravity in Et misericordia which
is duly enforced by the strings’ great warmth and solidity of
tone.
Given the establishment
of the impressive instrumental platform much will depend on
what one makes of the individual singers. Perhaps the litmus
test is whether you blanch at the forceful vibratos of Barbara
Hendricks and Ann Murray in the Laudamus te. It happens
to be the case that the vocal cast conform in almost all matters
of vibrato usage so at least in that respect they make for a
hermetically sealed unit. But try that movement from the Vivaldi
if you can, if you’re curious about acquiring this set - which
comes as per the style of this series, without texts.
Jonathan Woolf
see also Review
by Gwyn Parry-Jones
Barbara Hendricks
(soprano) 
