Palestrina: Lamentation III (Book III)

“Among the many other things for which the independent record company Hyperion deserves our gratitude is its long-standing engagement of Westminster Catherdral Choir, England’s finest Catholic choir, to record the masterpieces of sacred polyphony … Palestrina’s third of his four settings of the Lamentations of Jeremiah is marked by sinuous vocal lines, harmonic richness, unpredictable modality and telling passages of homophonic writing … Martin Baker rightly emphasises the classical perfection of Palestrina’s polyphony … as usual, Hyperion’s engineers have worked miracles with the difficult acoustics of Westminster Cathedral. Jon Dixon contributes a first-rate booklet essay, which helpfully situates the performance of Lamentations within the complex rituals of Holy Week celebrations” International Record Review

“Everything about this disc, from the captivating sound to the sleeve notes, is of the highest quality. A must for choral fans” Classic FM Magazine

“very beautifully sung at Westminster Cathedral and superbly recorded...the trebles rise up into the heavens ecstatically. A memorable disc indeed, showing Palestrina at his most inspirational.” Penguin Guide, 2011 edition

“This outstanding recording of music for Holy Saturday opens with two lessons from the third of Palestrina's four settings of texts from Lamentations, passages chanted during the Office of Tenebrae on the last three days of Holy Week.
The third lesson is Palestrina's superb setting of the Prayer of Jeremiah.
The performance is objectively straightforward, allowing the music, in its utter poignancy expressed with marked restraint, to speak for itself. The clarity of the individual voices is remarkable and the acoustic clear, yet warm: even the six-part final cry, 'Jerusalem… convertere ad Dominum Deum tuum', comes across with perfect intelligibility. In the chanted liturgy each lesson is followed by a florid reponsory, and full marks should go to Musica Contexta for transcribing these chants from Giovanni Guidetti's edition of 1587, which naturally comes from the right place and is of the right date.
Though the responsories might have been better in a slower, more determinedly solemn style, these singers are well on the way to achieving perfection here. It's particularly interesting to hear them sing Palestrina's wonderful Sicut cervus, with its surging phrases, and also his famous Stabatmater for double choir, displaying that dramatic alternation between antiphonal choir and combined choral sections. For maximum effect, more antiphonal distinction might have helped in the choir – versus – choir sections; but overall this is a well-thought-out and moving performance.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010