Sacred Music (The King's Consort) (2003)

"Zelenka is an extraordinarily intriguing figure: he composed music that, although cast in the standard idiom of the time and place, has a curious wilfulness - the lines take odd twists, the modulations veer off in strange directions, the counterpoint moves at unpredictable angles, the phrase lengths refuse to follow the expected patterns. It makes the music constantly fascinating. The opening bar of the Litanyis a good example: a big C major chord - and then a powerful G sharp rings Out in the middle of it; no one else did that sort of thing. But the most deeply felt music here is perhaps in the Officium Defunctorum: the 3 lessons are all differently scored, one with soprano and a cool, soft chalumeau, the next for tenor with oboes, the last for bass with the traditional elegiac recorders. With King's polished choir and orchestra, his usual springy rhythms and his sensitivity equally to shades of texture and shades of musical meaning, Zelenka's curious music could scarcely have better advocacy." (Gramophone)

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