Images of Christ

Description

Around the figure of Christ there has grown up over the centuries a body of choral literature that can only be described as among the most remarkable in western civilization. The music of this recording, all for a cappella choir, is grouped loosely according to the themes of its texts (The Coming of Christ, Words of Christ, The Passion of Christ, Resurrection and Ascension, Christ in the Eucharist), drawing together composers as far apart in time and space as 11th-century France and 20th-century Russia and America. The aim is not a liturgical reconstruction, nor an historical survey, but rather a journey of the imagination.

Track list

1. Let all mortal flesh keep silence (Bairstow)
2. Veni, redemptor gentium (Sarum chant)
3. Hodie Christus natus est (Palestrina)
4. Omnes de Saba venient (Jacob Handl)
5. Ich bin ein rechter Weinstock (Schütz)
6. The crown of roses (Tchaikovsky)
7. Vo tsarstvii Tvoyem (Rachmaninov)
8. Pater noster (Stravinsky)
9. Christus factus est (Bruckner)
10. Good Friday Reproaches (Palestrina)
11. Eram quasi agnus (Victoria)
12. O vos omnes (Casals)
13. Crucifixus a 8 (Lotti)
14. Surgens Jesus (Peter Philips)
15. Ascendo ad Patrem (Palestrina)
16. Viri Galilæi (Byrd)
17. Jesu, dulcis memoria (Victoria)
18. Ave verum corpus (Richard Dering)
19. Pange lingua (Gregorian chant)
20. Agnus Dei (Barber)
21. O sacrum convivium (Messiaen)