This recording celebrates the affinities bridging nearly 500
years of English music, and by placing works from the
last years of the pre-Reformation side by side with those
from the late-20th-century flowering of liturgical music, invites the
listener to make connections across half a millennium.
Recorded in Merton College Chapel, Oxford
April 2001
Playing time : 66'00" DDD
Reviews
"
Higginbottom sets out to celebrate affinities between the last
years of the pre-Reformation period and the late-20th-century
blooming of devotional music. His programme works well as
an illustration of this premise and, perhaps more importantly,
as a coherent musical unit."
The Gramophone
"
The rich tone favoured by New College Choir here works exceptionally
well with such liturgical showpieces as Giles Swayne's Magnificat and
Jonathan Harvey's Come, Holy Ghost. This disc conveys spiritual
values without a trace of soporific monotony. Unmissable."
Classic FM Magazine
"
Following the tremendous success of the Gramophone award-winning
Agnus Dei album, the Choir of New College Oxford under the
musical direction of Edward Higginbottom...celebrate English
choral polyphony over the last 500 years. In Excelsis
is a deeply moving record that bridges the gap between ritualistic
16th-century composers like John Taverner and 20th-century
minimalists like John Tavener and Giles Swayne"
Western Mail
