This is one of the ardent, more sensual, most spiritual, most joyous, and -- most of all -- one of the most enjoyable recordings of Schubert's choral music in years. While John Eliot Gardiner tends to smother Schubert's music with affectation and Robert Shaw tends to smother his music with the gargantuan sound of the Robert Shaw Chorus, Jane Glover and the BBC Singers perform his psalms and part songs with affection scaled to the size of the music. When the music is itself vast, as in the magnificent Psalm 92 (D. 953), ...
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This is one of the ardent, more sensual, most spiritual, most joyous, and -- most of all -- one of the most enjoyable recordings of Schubert's choral music in years. While John Eliot Gardiner tends to smother Schubert's music with affectation and Robert Shaw tends to smother his music with the gargantuan sound of the Robert Shaw Chorus, Jane Glover and the BBC Singers perform his psalms and part songs with affection scaled to the size of the music. When the music is itself vast, as in the magnificent Psalm 92 (D. 953), Glover and the Singers sound like the voice of all creation. When the music is luminous with moonlight, as in the radiant Nachthelle (D. 892), Glover and the Singers glow with warmth. But when the music is simply silly, as in Der Tanz (D. 826) or Der Mailied (D. 202), Glover and the Singers' unbutton their vests and loosen up their suspenders to really enjoy singing. With the superb help of the City of London Sinfonia's low strings in Gesang der Geister über den Wassern (D. 714) and...
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