Lassus: Lagrime di San Pietro / Herreweghe

This disc is ravishing, and wonderful, but very difficult to write about. I intentionally held off listening to it until I had heard the same artists - even including one of the very same singers - perform the Lagrime at the 2014 Edinburgh Festival in the resonant acoustic of Greyfriars Kirk. It had a profound effect on me then, and this recording replicated a similar result. The programme note for that concert mischievously suggested that Lagrime di San Pietro was the nearest musical equivalent to the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Lassus sets a cycle of twenty Italian poems called rispetti: “possibly the most restricted poetic form in European history” in David Fallows’ words. Each movement is of roughly the same length (about 2½ minutes), each is set for seven voices, and each moves at roughly the same speed. In other words, Lassus consciously restricts himself in the severest manner possible to an extremely limited form of musical setting. The results are enchanting, even spellbindi