Bruckner: Virga Jesse floruit

“Beautifully recorded as the Stuttgart singers are in the motets, they seem marginally more distant in the Mass…” Gramophone Magazine, September 2008

“Of the 'chamber-like' versions of this Mass, Polyphony trumps all others for beauty of tone. At the end of the Agnus, where the sopranos don't have bulk, they gleam. In the Benedictus, too, musical sense arises from transparency and intelligent shaping. The performances of the motets are excellent, too, painting nuanced pictures of these vocally and philosophically stratospheric pieces.” BBC Music Magazine, November 2007 *****

“The seven unaccompanied motets are absolute gems. An ethereal account of Ave Maria has a breadth and grandeur which belies its short time-span; as the vocal lines crowd in on each other, the effect is nothing short of electrifying. And popular as it is, if there has to be a ‘definitive’ interpretation on disc of Locus iste, this has to be it. Put it simply, we’re unlikely to hear choral singing as fine as this for a good few years to come” Gramophone Magazine

“Under Nethsingha’s directions, Gloucester Cathedral Choir sing with confidence and refinement” Sunday Times

“The least often performed of Bruckner’s mature works are his short choral pieces. Most of these 17 pieces are unaccompanied and purely choral, but three are accompanied by three trombones, a striking effect…Few would guess that they were Bruckner, though occasionally the harmonies are so daring that few composers would have dared to use them. The performances here are given by a Czech Choir with a characteristic, central European sound, rougher, more throaty than one would expect from a British choir, and in that way welcome… they are impressive and I suggest going to the last three to find that out.” Michael Tanner, BBC Music Magazine