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Reviewer:
Caroline Gill
It would be
difficult to find a group more steeped in serious musicological research than
Cappella Romana, and their discs of music of the Byzantine tradition (mainly
medieval chant but also modern, related works) have, as a result, a general
sense of quiet elegance and authority. Their recording of music for the Church
of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem is no exception, and as such is one that not
only stands up as a sound world of unique beauty but as a reference for
composers writing into their music an influence that is constantly expanding and
changing. That this is niche repertoire is undeniable but it is also certain
that the context Cappella Romana give it is thrilling beyond its academic value
on the page. Much of it untouched for half a millennium, and its exact usage
given careful attention in the booklet-notes, this very simple music can easily
become a visual experience, rather than a purely aural one. The group’s previous
projects have involved the recreation of specific acoustics (in particular those
of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul) – effects that are deeply moving and evocative –
and that, combined with the graphic nature of this music, leaves this disc
feeling oddly incomplete when recorded in the more sterile surroundings of
Stanford Memorial Church. Despite that, though, it is hard not feel that the
work this group is doing is not only presenting music that has a veneer of
inaccessibility in a way that releases its particular beauty but also allowing
it to bloom and continue to evolve.
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