Bruckner: Mass in E minor / Motets Choir Classical Kings College

About Chandos

About Us

Chandos Records is one of the world's premier classical music record companies, best known for its ground breaking search for neglected musical gems. The company has pioneered the idea of the 'series' and proudly includes series of such composers as Prokofiev, Tchaikovsky, Parry, Walton, Grainger, Berkeley and Bridge. Renowned for its superb sound quality, Chandos has won many prestigious awards for its natural sound.

Customer Service

Popular Categories

(New) Chandos CD Printed Catalogue

Get In Touch

Chandos Records
Chandos House
1 Commerce Park
Commerce Way
Colchester
Essex
CO2 8HX
United Kingdom

Tel: +44(0)1206 225200
Fax: +44(0)1206 225201

VAT No: 466104851
Co. reg: 1424451

Secure Payments

“…This program offers the second of Bruckner’s three numbered Masses … plus a half dozen shorter works… Every one is a gem, music of heavenly beauty and divine inspiration… The choir of King’s College, Cambridge lives up to its lofty standards with its immaculate intonation, perfect attacks and releases, evenness of tone throughout the range, and ethereal pianissimos. The engineering is as remarkable as the singing. A long reverberation time combined with distant microphone placement give the listener the impression that he or she has just entered a grand cathedral and is hearing an unseen choir from the far end of the nave. The effect is one of awe, reverence, and mystery… a superlative release.

Robert Markow – Fanfare – March/April 2021

Performance ***** Recording ****

Michael Tanner - BBC Music magazine - January 2021

“… A feature that sets Cleobury’s version apart from most other recordings is the use of boys’ voices for the soprano and alto parts, heard immediately in the haunting a cappella opening of the Kyrie, the trebles sounding strikingly pure and radiant...Another feature of Cleobury’s recording is the fleetness of the interpretation...I never felt that the performance was too fast, however, the choice of tempos throughout in keeping with the freshness of the approach and the modest scale of the forces employed. Cleobury prefaces the performance of the Mass with a stirring account of Ecce sacerdos magnus … with five other motets following after. These are performed with a similar combination of vitality and dedication, and the recording throughout is first class.”

Christian Hoskins - Gramophone magazine - December 2020

Nominee in Choral Category

International Classical Music Awards 2021

“Among his admirers, Bruckner’s choral works are regarded very highly, and this monumental new reading of his Mass in E minor will be catnip to Bruckner aficionados. It’s hard to imagine a more persuasive reading, particularly in this wide-ranging recording, under the late Stephen Cleobury.”

Barry Forshaw – cdchoice.co.uk – 8 November 2020

“…In addition to his love of art, Bruckner was a devout Catholic, and it is in his smaller-scale religious works that we find a level of universally praised beauty and genius unlike any other of his contemporaries, a point reinforced by this recording of the Mass in E Minor and motets by the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge. Recorded shortly before the death of conductor Stephen Cleobury, this striking survey of Bruckner’s religiosity and skill is also a testament to the devotion and dedication of the man who led the King’s College choir for so many years… This is music to soothe the soul in troubled times such as our own.”

Matthew Whitfield – thewholenote.com – 2 November 2020

“…It’s refreshing to hear this music sung with the urgent energy of boys’ voices, the textures almost raw. Their Locus iste soars gloriously in the King’s chapel acoustic…”

Fiona Maddocks – The Guardian - 31 October 2020

My Wish List