Bruckner: Christus factus est, WAB 10

This sequence of music for Lent, Passiontide and Easter represents a journey through perhaps the most dramatic part of the Church’s year. It is a season which has inspired many composers to write some of their most potent pieces, and contrasts the seriousness of intent and poignancy found in, say, Lotti’s Crucifixus with the exuberance of music such as Philips’s Ecce vicit Leo.

Other favourites in this anthology include Mendelssohn’s I waited for the Lord, Bruckner’s Christus factus est, and the beautiful Gibbons setting of Drop, drop, slow tears with the soloist Anthony Way (who caused such a stir in television’s The Choir). There are also two important new works, by John Sanders and Brian Chapple.

A celebration both of Easter and of exceptional singing.

The motets on this recording range from a cappella style to works for four to eight voices accompanied by three or four trombones and organ. They include continuously set motets and motets in ‘strophe’ form. Since a difference of almost forty years separates the first and the last compositions, stylistic differences are to be expected. The harmonies also provides for variety.