Ghiselin Danckerts: Missa De Beata Virgine – Cantar Lontano

Choir & Organ (Nov, 2018)
The 11 men of Cantar Lontano, directed by Marco Mencoboni in a world premiere recording of Ghiselin Dankerts’s Missa de Beata Virgine, offer a daringly grainy, forthright, characterful, extrovert, visceral and gloriously linear performance of this busy polyphony, suggestive of reading from part-books. With magnificent presence in huge acoustics and absolute immersion in the words, this is marvellous marmite. A more introverted approach might be deemed appropriate for St Matthew Passion by Lassus, but Musica Ficta directed by Bo Holten take this too far. The solo chant is fine but ensemble intonation and temperament are not always of the happiest, snatched breaths discomfort the ear and one looks in vain …