Symphonic psalms & prayers

"While this intriguing Judaeo-Christian programme may not fit too well on the shelves of old-style, repertoire-led collectors, it lives up to Tenebrae's stated core values of "passion and precision" ... Symphony of Psalms, which opens the anthology, seems ... wonderfully clean and sharp-etched so that you never feel short-changed ... Next up is the Schoenberg, notoriously difficult to bring off, especially when performed as here without the instrumental doublings for strings and wind ... Tricky in a different way, Leonard Bernstein's Chichester Psalms is marginally less successful ... Zemlinsky's Psalm 23 ... certainly makes for grateful listening".

"Taut, tensile, snappy: Nigel Short's account of the opening movement in Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms is all of these things ... Countertenor David Allsopp displays beguiling poise and tonal purity in The Lord is my shepherd ... Schoenberg's Friede auf Erden and Zemlinsky's Psalm 23, both strongly performed, are significant bonuses. If you like the coupling of the main works - the only one in the current catalogue - these Tenebrae performances will reward repeated listening".