Search - Rossi, Pro Cantione Antiqua, Fixman :: Songs of Solomon

Lovely sound, but some of the tempi are incredibly slow.

04/11/1999

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This group makes a gorgeous sound, but some of the songs are shockingly slow. The short masterpiece, 'Al Naharot Bavel' takes 5 minutes (actually 4:58) on this disk, compared to 3 minutes (actually 2:56) on the Zamir Chorale recording. Such a gross difference makes the shape of the music somewhat less distinct. And the 'Kaddish', unexpectedly set by Rossi as a popular dance, is hardly dancable at over 5 minutes on this disk (compared to 2:50 on the Zamir Chorale disk). These are really gross differences. If you want to put your ears in an easy chair and float on a lovely wash of baroque-sounding voices, this is the disk to have. But if you want to hear these songs as songs per se, audition other options. The other songs on this disk are also slower than on other recordings, though not as drastically. This is a generous CD, with almost 70 minutes of music. (The Zamir CD is only 49 minutes.) All in all, a nice disk to have, but it wouldn't be my only Rossi disk."

Baroque meets Synagogue

Anonymous | 10/02/1998

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Salamone Rossi 'Hebreo' seems justly to be much in demand these days, and previously unrecorded Italian and Hebrew works are appearing in the catalogues. For years the only recording of the works of Salamone Rossi (c.1570~c.1630) was that of Joel Cohen and the Boston Camerata (Harmonia Mundi mid-price) which still stands as a great recording, but this version is as good or better. This disc of Hebrew works was recorded at West London Synagagogue in January 1996 with such famous names as Paul Esswood and Ian Partridge among the voices. The only reason this doesn't get 5 stars is that the CD booklet includes English translations but no Hebrew text. If Harmonia Mundi can include romanised Hebrew texts for Alia Musica's 'El canto espiritual judeoespanol' (HMI 987015) there's no reason why Carlton could not do the same. That aside a fine release. Playing time 69'23""

Rossi recordings

Anonymous | Boston, MA | 06/09/2001

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Unfortunately, Pro Cantione Antiqua's performance of Salamone Rossi's sacred Hebrew choral works is quite awful. They sing with excessive vebrato and blend poorly, the effect of which is a sound reminiscent of recordings of Renaissance music from the 1950s and 1960s. Listeners interested in these remarkable pieces should instead purchase the superior, though far from perfect, two-disc set by New York Baroque. Also of interest is the recent madrigal disc by L'arte Soave on the Tactus label."