Search - Christophers, Caldara, The Sixteen :: Caldara: Crucifixus / Schutz Deutsches Magnificat / Musikalische Exequien / Bach: Jesus bleibet meine Freude / Magnificat in D / The Sixteen /In Honore JS Bach

Shamefully Bad!

Giordano Bruno | Wherever I am, I am. | 02/15/2010

(2 out of 5 stars)

"And shamefully hyped, as well! "In Honor of JS Bach"? Where's the honor in such a patched-together program?



This is basically Bach's oft-recorded "Magnificat", with headers and footers, portions of other Bach cantatas, an awful massacre of Antonio Caldara's "Crucifixus and a snippit Heinrich Schuetz's "Musikalische Exequien", both elegant 17th C works sung by The Sixteen as if they were choruses from a lost Wagner opera. The "Magnificat" is music so magnificent that it's hard to spoil, but The Sixteen come close. Their version is thick and church-choir-like in timbre, sluggish in tempi, and from gruff to maudlin in affect.



The Sixteen have made some splendid recordings. This is not one of them."