The CD of Cappella Romana’s most popular and critically acclaimed program, The Fall of Constantinople, has received a review in the April 2009 edition of Gramophone magazine. [Link to Cappella Romana’s CD Store]
The review hasn’t yet appeared in the Gramophone online reviews, but do find it in print at your local music or magazine shop.
The review gives the disc a “G – Star” rating and features a sidebar interview with Dr. Alexander Lingas by Gramophone’s Editor, James Inverne.
“Cappella Romana: when East meets West”
“A captivating recital as Greek Orthodox chant confronts Western Polyphony”
“The meeting between the churches [Greek and Latin] must have been fascinating and that sense of occasion is conveyed here.”
“An intriguing new light is shed on Dufay’s motets.”
“Dufay[‘s] lament concludes this recital very movingly.”
“[a] sense of pleasurable unfamiliarity”
and from the interview:
“Byzantine music has lagged behind other medieval repertoires in the early music movement, so there is a real thrill in discovering music that hasn’t been heard for 500 years. Recording the album, our very experienced producer asked, ‘Is there more of this?’ We said, ‘Thousands and thousands of manuscripts, each with many folios. This is a fraction of a percent of the total repertory!’ It also means that when we give concerts, that traditional dynamic of presenting a work to an audience is far more fluid – we’re still discovering the music, just as they are”
–Dr. Alexander Lingas.
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