Lamentations for Holy Week (Works by Carissimi, Frescobaldi, Marcorelli, Palestrina plus Toccatas by Rossi & Kapsberger)

"Kiehr has an angelic voice and she is superbly accompanied by the small period ensemble Concerto Soave…An inspirational disc."
Classical CD of the Week, Sunday Times, 20 May 2007

Editor's Choice Gramophone July 2007

"Right from the first phrases, there is the sense that this is a disc to treasure. There is, at every point, simply (though it is far from simple to achieve) something so right about the fusion of music and soloist. Maria Cristina Kiehr has, as Fabrice Fitch notes in his review, "one of the most beguiling voices to be heard today". With superb work from Concerto Soave, this is a treat one feels that everyone should enjoy."
(Gramophone)

Music-lovers are by now familiar with the Tenebrae Lessons, the settings of the Lamentations of Jeremiah sung throughout Catholic Europe on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evenings of Holy Week. The Renaissance had delighted in them, and France under Louis XIV was to cultivate the genre to excess. In Italy, the fashion for Lamentazioni belongs to the first half of the 17th century, as witness the 23 cycles of manuscript Q43 of the Museo musicale in Bologna, all by composers active in Rome at the time. Maria Cristina Kiehr and Concerto Soave revive the pleasures of sheer contrition to be had from singing words such as afflictio, dolor, and lamentatio . . .