Three Sacred Releases

From Amazon: The musical perfection of the recorded legacy of the Abbey of Saint-Pierre de Solesmes aside (and what a legacy - and how impossible to set it aside!), for me this is the 'ultimate' recording of liturgical chant. So much recommends the recordings of Solesmes - the exquisite singing, especially of that one anonymous tenor voice which alone seems to create the 'sound' of the entire schola!- the aristocratic liturgical taste of Dom Gajard, and now Dom Jean Claire, the genuine poverty of the monastic life at Solesmes (I've stayed there and seen it). While Solesmes pursues the vast body of Gregorian chant, here the monks sing chant from an earlier age, so-called Visigothic (Mozarabic) chant, not much heard before the liturgical relaxations subsequent to the Vatican Council II. These monodic melodies of Spain's Arabic past possess not only a musical beauty, but allow us to hear Roman chant in a fresh light. While the Kyriale included in here may more exactly be called neo-Mozarabic, the main selections come from the period prior to Roman codification under Gregory, Spanish in heart, and universal in beauty: the remarkable 'Introibo ad altare Dei mei', various Antiphons and Prayers intrinsic to an older national liturgical ideal usurped by Gregorian legislation, culminating in the otherworldly 'Lamentation of Jeremiah', sung by a single voice, which once heard will never leave you. The disc is recorded in the great Romanesque Abbey church, with an acoustic richly suited to the sung prayer of glad monks. If you love liturgical chant, get this treasure and enter an enriching path of consuming fire.