Comparison Recordings:
De Profundis, Summa. Davies,
Stuttgart RSO, Hilliard Ensemble ECM
831959
When the Hilliard Ensemble
perform Pärt they manage to imbue
each single note with a special intensity
and build the whole toward a radiant
climax. Alex Ross writing in, of course,
‘New Yorker’, reported on a Berlin performance
of this Berliner Mass in the
presence of the composer; a performance
that was rivetingly exciting every moment.
That is not quite what we have here,
but what we do have is still top drawer.
Here the performers go more for serene
reverence than for anguish or excitement.
The Cantate Domino is sprightly,
invoking a British medieval kind of
joy. The Beatitudes (to an English
text) conclude with a series of big
organ chords with deep pedal notes that
come through clearly only on the DVD-Audio
tracks and the dts tracks, but
not so well on the AC-3 tracks. The
De Profundis appropriately enough
features the chorus basses with deep
organ notes, bells, and gong which,
again, come through best on the DVD-Audio
tracks and dts tracks.
The rear channel tracks
are very low in volume so this is a
dry, front-balanced surround sound recording
with little sense of space. The chorus’s
sibilants resonate slightly but do not
echo in the space of the church.
Paul Shoemaker
see also review
by Jonathan Woolf (SACD)