Membra Jesu nostri

"All in all this is an attractive work that should be heard more often. The playing and singing of the concerted forces of Donizetti Opera is committed and Corrado Rovaris holds the many strands of the score in tight reins. The soloists do a worthy job and I want to give a special laurel wreath to tenor Juan Francisco Gatell for his sensitive lyrical singing and stylishness".

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"Det är en lisa att lyssna på Vox Scaniensis när de sjunger Dietrich Buxtehudes kantatsamling Membra Jesu Nostri ... Hannah Tibell, Hanna Ydmark och de andra i den lilla instrumentgruppen ger sina mellanspel en nästan folklig prägel. Sångarna sjunger med känsla och uttryck, men orden om Jesus sargade kropp förleder dem inte till effektsökeri. Deras konsekvent mycket rena intonation gör dessutom att musiken får en något dämpad färgskala. Kantaterna smälter slutligen samman till en helhet. Kroppen tar form ... Tydliga uttryck men med klok återhållsamhet".

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"Daniel Hyde's real achievement here is to offer a more inward-looking and movingly fragile view of Bxtehude's cycle that one normally encounters - one that is utterly in keeping with the nature of the work and its religious import".

"The 26-strong Choir of Magdalen College swamp the half-dozen players in choruses - although the choir's confidently precise sonorities are laudable ... There is rich splendour in choral textures during the final cantata Ad Faciem'".

"With at least 17 different recordings ... it becomes ever harder to choose one from among them ... Koopman has opted for a choir pitch notably higher, as far as I can recall, than any rival version. This proves on occasion to be unsettling especially in the uppermost vocal ranges ... The greatest virtue of the performance for me lies in the contributions of tenor Jörg Dürmüller and bass Klaus Mertens. Their declamation is fervent, warmly coloured and pleasingly rounded. The 20-voice choir also comes across convincingly".

"Siri Karoline Thornhill and Dorothee Wohlgemuth ... their confident embellishments go some way to compensating for occasional shrillness and dodgy tuning ... Paced and played sensitively, and I enjoyed Koopman's customarily elaborate yet intelligent organ realisation ... Overlong pauses prohibit flowing between movements".

"Opella Musica's approach avoids monumentality in favour of concision, transparency and dynamism ... While the voices individually don't quite match those that Konrad Junghänel or Philippe Pierlot have at their disposal, their vision is not only different but consistently well defended ... The instrumental ensemble is compact, the acoustic comparatively dry and the miking comparatively close, all of which supports the main aesthetic choice ... All the same ... I can recommend this one wholeheartedly".

"The Purcell Quartet and Fretwork relish the variegated sonorities afforded by Buxtehude's score, as well as the word-painting, while blending with the voices to effect a homogenous yet multi-timbred sound of great beauty".

"Gramophone focus - Editor's choice: What we have here is a wonderfully full yet transparent sound, greatly enhanced by the sheer quality of the voices, and recorded with such luxuriance that the only concessions to the thinner forces are greater flexibility and a sense of a more focused expressive intent. This is a truly lovely recording which certainly lacks neither the drama nor the intimacy ... but adds to it a clarity of thought and expressive detail that I find wholly absorbing".

"Ett i grunden höviskt verk som i den här avskalade tappningen fått en klart, lite nyvaket uttryck som en enkel men lycklig filfrukost en daggfrisk morgon ... I Wallins tolkning är vibrato en sällsynhet men desto mer gödslar man med vackra, surrigt murriga viola da gambor ... För alla barockfans av svensk-tysk-dansk vokalmusik är det här en skiva att lyssna på om och om igen så att detaljer och struktur får chans att veckla ut sig i full blom".

"Vocal forces of just 10 singers supported by the same number of instrumentalists bring a level of intimacy that is entirely appropriate to this programme of 17th-century music reflecting on the Passion. Solo voices have a disarming purity and immediacy of expression about them, while the small instrumental forces are a perfect match in quality of soung and directness of expression ... Exquisitely performed by this outstanding instrumental and vocal enesemble".

"The sonatas for two violins and basso continuo that commence each cantata are played with an unusual lightness of touch ... The Sonata in tremulo (Ad genua) is played softly and intelligently but the blend and tuning of the choral quintet in "Ad ubera portabimini" is marred by pinched and anaemic singing ... Other single-voice-per-part versions ... communicate the penitential words with warmer sentimentality".

"It seems generally accepted now that Buxtehude's cantatas should be performed with the soloists singing the choruses ... It increases the burden on the singers: they have to be outstanding as both soloists and choristers and one bad singer can seriously mar even the best-directed performance ... Despite the fine playing of La Petite Bande's viols throughout this work and the attractive bass voice of Jens Hamann ... Schenck's contribution of the soprano part means it is not a wholly successful performance".