The Choir Of Clare College, Cambridge, Timothy Brown - Light Of The Spirit
STYLE: Choral RATING OUR PRODUCT CODE: 13020- LABEL: Collegium CSACD902 FORMAT: CD Album ITEMS: 2 RRP: £14.00
Reviewed by Steven Whitehead
This is an outstanding collection with an imaginative programme sung by a top choir in fine voice. However, please read the small print as the two discs collected here have both been issued before as 'Illumina' in 1999 and 'Blessed Spirit' a year later. The two have been gathered together and reissued as a hybrid SACD that can be played on a standard CD player if you do not yet have the hardware to cope with a SACD player. Even on my basic system the recording sounds superb, thanks to the incredible acoustic at the Lady Chapel of Ely Cathedral where the recordings were made and as the double CD is priced as a single this is good value. Each album is devoted to a different facet of spiritual revelation: 'Illumina' explores the theme of light; 'Blessed Spirit' is about Heaven and our pilgrimage to get there. The music ranges from Gregorian chant to African-American spirituals such as "Steal Away" and "Deep River" and on to modern works such as Ligetti's "Lux Aeterna" of 1966 and Tavener's "Funeral Icos" of 1981. The singing is entirely acappella and sounds appropriately heavenly.
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