Phil Dale, Tom Lees, Andrew Harwood-White, Nick Perry

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Reviews will also be posted as they come in.

  1. Diapason d’Or de l’annee
    Diapason magazine in France published two spreads (in December 2011 and January 2012) with details of the Gold awards.

    Read the full article here

  2. Tutti Magazine, France
    ‘Cette partition fondatrice et impressionnante bénéficie d’une mise en place exemplaire par les 40 musiciens de I Fagiolini. Exemplaire tant par la richesse incroyable des timbres de ces instruments anciens répartis par famille et résonnant avec le lustre d’antan, que par le fondu exceptionnel des voix et, surtout, par l’implication et la passion de tous les artistes concernés par ce projet.

    Une partition indispensable qui représentait une prise de risque devenue rare…’

    (‘This ground-breaking score is performed in an exemplary fashion by the 40 [sic] musicians of I Fagiolini. Exemplary for the incredible richness of timbre of the period instruments, which are distributed in space according to their different families, and sound as glorious as they would have done at the time; for the exceptional blend of the voices; and above all for the commitment and passion of all involved. An essential recording and an all-too-rare example of risk-taking.’)
    Full review here

  3. Gramophone Awards 2011
    The Striggio CD has been shortlisted for a prestigious Gramophone Award, in the Early Music category. This is a major accolade – and the final results will be announced on 6 October. More details here

  4. Bangkok Post – Melodic massive
    Reviewed by Ung-Aang Talay in the Bangkok Post
    ‘..One of the best discs of the year so far, and strongly recommended.’

  5. We understand that Decca are looking into whether an NTSC version of the DVD is possible.We hear that more recent DVD players in the USA are likely to be multi-region, and it’s likely that it will play on a computer if you’re mostly interested in the ‘making of’ film.

    Of course, the CD works anywhere in the world, so you can still enjoy the music in stereo at least!

  6. Will there be a published version where the DVD is formatted to play on North American players (i.e. non-PAL)? I heard tantalizing excerpts on the “Millennium of Music” radio program this weekend.

  7. Yes indeed – the DVD includes 5.1 Surround Sound audio tracks for the three 40-part works as well as a behind the scenes film.

  8. Laraine Barker on April 9, 2011 at 3:50 am

    Congratulations! Somebody is getting me a copy when he places an order at amazon.co.uk and I can hardly wait. I listened to samples at my favourite listening place http://www.jpc.de/ and love what I heard. I’m just a little surprised the CD isn’t SACD format because I understand the samples on the DVD included with the CD are.

  9. Striggio’s Mass for 40 voices sounds about as awesome as it looks – Gramophone, May 2011
    The UK’s leading classical recordings magazine reviewed the Striggio CD in the May edition. ‘Worth hearing? Definitely.’
    See the full review here

  10. 4 Stars in Classic FM Magazine
    Rick Jones reviews the CD in the May 2011 edition of Classic FM Magazine.
    “The ear is constantly taken by details in the elephantine crowd, a distant tenor laughing up a scale, an abrasive shawm doubling a choir’s ‘Hosanna’. Massive chords move with the slow, stately momentum of a merchant galleon laden with gold. ‘You can hear the money!’ smirks the conductor on the DVD and he’s right.”
    See the full review here.

  11. Striggio features in Gramophone Magazine podcast
    James Jolly’s interview with Robert Hollingworth features in the April magazine podcast
    Listen here

  12. Second weeks in the charts
    The Striggio CD topped the classical charts for a second week – Number 2 in all classical, and number 1 in the specialist classical chart.

  13. BBC Music Magazine – April Edition
    ‘..The instruments transfigure much of this music. They do the heavy lifting for some of the choir parts in the Mass and Ecce beatam lucem, contribute to the spacious sonorities, and add delicate moments of colour.’ Performance 4 stars, Recording 5 stars. Click here to see the full review

  14. I agree with Phillips that the band enhances the choral lines, but listen to Paul van Nevel’s version of Spem in alium (or Phillip’s own) and the sheer strength of Tudor music is evident. On van Nevel’s Utopia Triumphans, I actually prefer Striggio’s Ecce beatum lucem to Tallis’ Spem. I Fagiolini’s version of Spem and of Striggio accords more with modern taste, so it’s no surprise that it’s hit the charts. I’m not into Gorecki but I think Duchen is right about the music suiting the times.

  15. Striggio hits The Sun
    The CD got a mention in the UK’s largest circulation newspaper, The Sun. It’s not normally a place to find reviews of classical music…. See a copy of the article here

  16. Is Striggio the new Górecki?
    Jessica Duchen writes in the Independent today wondering whether the CD might be striking a chord for today’s troubled times…
    http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/biggio-time-beckons-for-striggio-2244932.html

  17. BRAVO !!!!!!

  18. Striggio hits the charts!
    In its first week of sales, the new CD has leapt into the classical album charts straight at number 2, and it’s even ahead of artists such as Duffy and Eminem in the full chart. Read the press release here.

  19. Mr David Wright on March 14, 2011 at 2:46 pm

    Have just purchased the Striggio CD. I have over 10,00 CDs, but this CD must rank already in my top 10. The music is glorious. The sound out of this world. So moving, I have cried my heart out. This CD will be on the CD player for many years to come. I hope you will tour this music!

  20. Alyson Elliman on March 10, 2011 at 11:02 pm

    Yessssssssssssssssss! A real triumph and the excitement of the experience of being at the rehearsals continues. Here’s hoping for (and expecting) record sales figures and top billing. Congratulations to all involved.

  21. Our copy arrived yesterday and has been well listened to – love the Striggio Mass, especially the passing of voices/instruments, really well prepared for and executed…. and Spem will never be the same again, cornetti win!
    Maybe our sound system is set up to favour Bass (unsurprising in this household…), we thought that maybe there was a little too much sackbut at times.
    All in all a very satisfying listen.

  22. The I Fagiolini version of Spem is fantastic too – crystal clear and emotionally thrilling.

  23. Amazon.uk wrote me that the disc is already on its way, so I am getting very curious and looking forward to the April workshop! .-)

  24. Absolutely glorious. Music and performance in which one could drown quite happily. I’ve now listened to the whole disc 3 times and I’ve heard something new on every listen. The first thing you hear is the amazing architecture written by Striggio, then when you’ve finished marvelling at the walls of sound and perfect harmony, you begin to hear individual, more intricate textures.

    The balance between the voices and instruments is probably just about right. In a few moments, the text is lost or difficult to hear, but that’s a small quibble when the rest of the disc is so beautiful.

    Bravo all. A mesmerising outcome to a very exciting project.

  25. Five stars in the Telegraph
    Another great review in the Telegraph – this time with five stars! Geoffrey Norris writes
    “Alessandro Striggio’s Missa Ecco sì beato giorno starts with a lone soprano voice, giving no clue to the spacious sonorities he is going to explore later on.
    This is his landmark mid-1500s Mass for 40 solo parts, expanding to an astonishing 60 for the final Agnus Dei. Its impact in this premiere recording by the voices and period instruments of I Fagiolini under Robert Hollingworth is terrific.”
    Full review is at
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/classicalcdreviews/8364225/Striggio-Mass-in-40-Parts-Tallis-Spem-in-alium-CD-review.html

  26. Review by Andrew Clements – The Guardian 5 March
    The Guardian also published a 4-star review by Andrew Clements.
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/mar/03/striggio-mass-40-parts-fagiolini
    “I Fagiolini, though, do not perform Spem in Alium exactly as we are used to hearing it, for conductor Robert Hollingworth adds continuo to the voices there too, giving extra definition to the work’s passing dissonances, which take it far beyond the sumptuous but bland harmonic world of Striggio’s models.”

  27. Recording the Striggio Mass – Robert Hollingworth in The Guardian, 5 March
    Robert wrote an extended piece for the Guardian today describing what it was like to record this long-lost music for the first time.
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/mar/03/striggio-choir-i-fagiolini-lost-mass
    “The four days of rehearsal and recording at All Saints Tooting were an awe-inspiring experience. To revive for permanent memory one of the great musical finds of the last 50 years – not just a tiny lost Mozart fragment or a short Purcell keyboard piece but an entire mass, the missing link of Renaissance music – to be the first to mould it, colour it and to let it speak for the first time was invigorating beyond words. A good place to stop writing and let the music speak for itself.”

  28. ’40 voices hitting you beautifully left and right..’ The Times, 4 March
    Great review from The Times today. Geoff Brown wrote
    “Vocal music in 40 separate parts is enough to test anyone’s hi-fi equipment. […] Given the difficulties, increased by the added instrumental layers, Decca’s engineers at All Saint’s, Tooting, the London recording location, did an excellent job balancing individual details against the total sound picture. Striggio’s music isn’t as richly textured as Tallis’s: no dissonant crunches, fewer soaring blasts. Yet you can still get hypnotised by the dappled flow of mellifluous chords, decorated with florid phrases winding round like honeysuckle. […] You have 40 voices hitting you beautifully left and right, plus sackbuts, cornets, lutes, viols, even the multi-stringed lirone.”
    Full review can be found here (if you have a subscription)

  29. Four stars in the Independent
    A 4 star review by Andy Gill in the Independent. “Though Striggio’s more formal Italian harmonic decorum precludes the kind of harmonic complexities that make Tallis’s masterwork such a superb experience, it nonetheless inhabits a powerfully affecting landscape, and is arranged here for period orchestration featuring viols, cornetts, lutes and the like.’
    http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/classical/reviews/album-i-fagiolinia-lessandro-striggio-mass-in-40-parts-decca-2231478.html

  30. ‘Beautifully performed….’ Nicholas Kenyon, The Observer, 27 Feb
    Nicholas Kenyon previewed the recording in the Observer on Sunday 27 Feb.
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/feb/27/striggio-mass-40-parts-fagiolini-review

    “Beautifully performed by I Fagiolini with soloists and countless continuo parts, the polychoral effects are striking but harmonically not very interesting. Striggio’s secular madrigals are more alluring, and at the end comes Tallis’s more famous 40-part Spem in alium, done here with instruments, incomparably more subtle and moving, a masterpiece.”

  31. Peter Phillips previews the new CD
    Peter Phillips, Director of The Tallis Scholars, wrote about this recording in his column in The Spectator.
    “I especially thrill to the idea of the recording ‘imaginatively bringing together not just voices but the full gamut of Renaissance instrumental colour (strings, brass, wind and lutes)’.

    “We should now finally be able to judge the Tallis against its competitors… Here we will have all the evidence in short order.”

    Read the full article here

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