Hildegard von Bingen: Ordo Virtutum

Choir & Organ (Jan, 2014)
Does the music of St Hildegard of Bingen need radical re-interpretation and re-invention for a contemporary audience? Dietburg Spohr and her Ensemble Belcanto clearly think so as they apply myriad vocal and almost anti-vocal effects to colour the Ordo Virtutem in lurid, gothic-horror tints. Jaded palates, bored with the subtle legato of traditional interpretations of this tale of spiritual pilgrimage, may be piqued by so avant-garde a distortion and there’s no doubt that this group can really sing, but bel canto it ain’t. …