Archives: Discos

The work here receives its world premiere, and it is worth the money and time for this alone. The performances by the properly substantial (34-voice) ensemble El León de Oro is close to an English cathedral style, with a clean, perfectly blended, rather light sound even in the more somber low-range pieces. This may be true because the conductor in the mass is Tallis Scholars director Peter Phillips, but there is no shift between the mass and the various shorter pieces directed by the choir’s founder, Marco Antonio García de Paz. These shorter pieces, by the all-but-unknown composers Pierre de Manchicourt, Nicolas Payen, and Philippe Rogier, are a distinguished group ranging from hefty two-section motets to limpid short works.

Rainer Trost, tenor

Joan Martín-Royo, baritone

El León de Oro, choir

Oviedo Filarmonía, orchestra

Friedrich Haider, conductor

This is the first CD recorded by El Leon de Oro, and it was its presentation to public. It contains a selection of religious polyphony works from various time periods and two compositions of its own.