Harmonia Mundi
Mendelssohn: Motets & Psaumes
About This Album
Mendelssohn's sacred works are wholly sincere expressions of his deeply held Lutheran faith. If, after the passing of the nineteenth century in the Great War, the rhetorical oratorios Elijah and Paulus came to seem slightly over-done to younger audiences, that was the perhaps understandable reaction of clear-eyed youth to religiously sentimental age. But the passing of Mendelssohn's as wholly sincere but infinitely less rhetorical and endlessly more personal motets is surely a more regrettable loss. Imagine a more sincerely religious but less ecstatically inclined Schubert crossed with a less severely agnostic but more spiritually secure Brahms and you're close to imagining the sound-world of Mendelssohn's motets. As performed here by Philippe Herreweghe with La Chapelle Royale, the motets are superbly composed works with well-wrought counterpoint and strongly expressive sonorities. Herreweghe draws a rich, plumy tone, and a wholly devotional attitude from La Chapelle Royale and sculpts with them entirely convincing performances that may still inspire belief in the works' religious sincerity and musical worth in the listener already familiar with the motets of Bach, Brahms, and Bruckner. Harmonia Mundi's early digital sound is rich, warm, and close, but perhaps a little too hard for some tastes. ~ James Leonard, All Music Guide
Track List

Psalm 2 ("Warum Toben Die Heiden"), For Soloists & Double Chorus In G Minor, Op. 78/1
1.
Psalm 22 ("Mein Gott, Mein Gott, Warum Hast Du Mich Verlassen"), For Soloists & Double Chorus In E Minor, Op. 78/3
2.
Nunc Dimittis, Motet For Soloists & Chorus In E Flat Major (English Church Pieces), Op. 69/1
3.
Ehre Sei Gott In Der Hohe, For Double Chorus
4.
Mitten Wir Im Leben Sind, Sacred Piece For Chorus In C Minor, Op. 23/3
5.
Anthems (6) For Double Chorus (Sechs Sprüche), Op. 79
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Work(s)
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