Bruckner,Cornelius & Strauss Vasari Singers with Southbank Sinfonia/Jeremy Backhouse
Even more impressive and enjoyable than
The Sixteen/Harry Christophers (Monteverdi's Selva Morale e Spirituale at Temple Church) were the crack amateur Vasari Singers, Jeremy Backhouse's 40 fully a match for Christophers' augmented 16. The Vasais sounded magnificent at St Martin's. To my ears, the most compact of Bruckner's Masses is all the better for its relative concentration and for being without soloists to steal the limelight. A favourite of mine over long years, but rarely met with in concert, this was the finest account of it I can remember. The Sixteen's concert was broadcast by BBCR3; this one from the Vasaris, whom we have reviewed often, could make a fine CD (or DVD !) and should, at the very least, be repeated for radio? Peter Grahame Woolf
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