Sacred Music

"Constantly fascinating to listen to. Especially when performed as beautifully and with such evident care and affection as it is on Robert King's new CD … Zelenka's curious music could scarcely have better advocacy" (Gramophone)

"The performance is outstanding, capturing the startlingly original nature of the piece with singing and playing of such vitality and commitment" (Fanfare)

Continuing their acclaimed series "Bach and his contemporaries", The King's Consort and Robert King turn their attention in this fourth volume to the astonishing sacred music of the remarkable Bohemian composer Jan Dismas Zelenka.

Colourful, complex, ornate, idiosyncratic, old-fashioned yet simultaneously forward-looking, Zelenka's music never ceases to amaze. This disc presents wonderfully varied and individual works. Two are substantial choral pieces: the "Litaniae de Venerabili Sacramento" shows Zelenka's more conventional, old-fashioned style of writing, yet the splendidly individual Invitatorium "Regem cui omnia vivunt" gives a powerful impression of Zelenka's choral style in a unique fusion of modern, dramatic gestures of harmony, dynamics and scoring. Also part of the same "Officium Defunctorum" were the three Lessons, which Zelenka scored for chamber forces. Here, instrumental colour in all its variety is to the fore, with the desolate texts enhanced by rare orchestral sounds including the soprano chalumeau, recorders and even muted oboes. Quirky in its orchestration too is the setting for soprano of "Salve Regina" in A minor where Zelenka's accompaniment is shared by concertante flute, oboe, violin and a larger ensemble in a substantial solo motet, gloriously sung by Carolyn Sampson. The final work too is a delight, with the vocal scoring of "Regina coeli laetare" reserved for three upper voices who sing in true "close harmony".