Great music performed with burning intensity and supreme skill — and recorded with just the right amount of resonance to give these works their proper grandeur and sublimity.

What an inspiring disc this is—great music performed with burning intensity and supreme skill—and recorded (in the Great Hall of Birmingham University) with clarity and just the right amount of resonance to give Bruckner's vaulted phrases their proper grandeur and sublimity. The CBSO Chorus has the same kind of exalted standards as the orchestra with which it works.

The principal work is Bruckner's magnificent Mass in E minor with woodwind and brass accompaniment. It is performed with the utmost fervour—just listen to the sheer joy of "Et resin-rexit" in the Credo, the streneth and rhythmic splendour of the Gloria and the final ecstatic cadences of the Agnus Dei, I can find no better words to convey the majesty of this music than those of John Kehoe (who produced the recording) in his article in the accompanying booklet: "He is supremely successful in his purpose, to render palpable to the senses the ineffable mysteries of the liturgy, and to make understood what is incomprehensible".

As for the old idea that Bruckner was some kind of inspired simpleton, this is as decisively refuted by all the music on this disc as it is by his sophisticated and masterly command of symphonic form in his orchestral masterpieces. In addition to the Mass, the chorus sings four motets, including the jubilantly celebratory Ecce sacerdos magnus of as late as 1885, the CBSO trombones play the two Aequali of 1847 and there is a hitherto unrecorded Ave Maria of 1882 for mezzo and organ, most beautifully sung by Anne-Marie Owens, with Peter King. This simple setting makes an interesting comparison with the exquisite 1861 motet for seven-part unaccompanied choir. (Incidentally, the 1882 setting is track 9 and the 1861 track 10, not as listed in the accompanying booklet.) For all who value religious music of the highest order, this disc must be an indispensable addition to their collection.

The Corydon/Hyperion performance of the Mass is equally well recorded, and this choir, on another disc, offers some of the same motets. Choice is invidious, but the Birmingham performances are astonishingly vivid under Simon Halsey's direction.

-- Gramophone [1/1991]