MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Mendelssohn: Motets : Psalm 100, Missa breve

* * * * * 5 Stars - BBC Music Magazine (Dec 2000)

"There have been fine recordings of many of these pieces before, but none, surely, finer than this. In blend, chording and intonation the Berlin choir has few rivals. And under its director Marcus creed it sings each work with an ideal blend of directness and refinement, and a proper concern for the sound and meaning of the text."

'It is an art to conceal art' : Mendelssohn had never presented a more perfect illustration of this maxim than in his Motets, Op.69. Composed in the year of his death, they are probably the finest works of religious music by this composer whom Berlioz had accused of being 'a little too fond of the dead'. But the most romantic of Bach's votaries had more than one trick up his sleeve and it would be a mistake to underestimate these extraodinary psalms and motets that Mendelssohn went on producing throughout his life, in spite of his rather strained relationship with the eccelsiastic authorities. Tradition and inventiveness are the leading principles of an artistic credo based on the skilful and beguiling mixture of counterpoint and melody, of harmony and brilliant orchestration. After having devoted three universally acclaimed recordings to the choral music of Brahms, the RIAS-Kammerchor is here on familiar ground…