Search - Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Gabriel Faure, Concerts Arts Symphony Orchestra :: Palestrina: Missa Papae Marcelli - Faur: Requiem / Roger Wagner Chorale

Performance Superb. Engineering, well ...

J. S. Bonorris MD | Los Angeles | 01/09/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"No one has ever matched Roger Wagner in performances of 16th Century polyphony and this performance of Palestrina's finest was probably Roger's best as well. Impeccable pitch and balance, purity of sound and irresistable phrasing lead to a searing intensity that makes today's recorded performances seem merely pedantic. Even when initially released on long playing vinyl discs, the quality of the sound engineering was disappointing, but as with old Toscanini recordings, once you concentrate on the performance you are drawn right into it.You might wonder how Roger Wagner, a boy from Hollywood, found his way to 16th Century choral art. His Alsatian father was organist at the Catholic Church in Hollywood. He sent his adolescent son to France to learn Gregorian Chant from the monks of Solesmes and of course, chant was the basis for all ecclesiastic polyphony. Wagner returned to Los Angeles and the Music Departments of USC and UCLA, conducted choirs in several Catholic Churches here, and established the world-touring Roger Wagner Chorale and the Los Angeles Music Center's Masterworks Chorale which performs to this day with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. Marilyn Horne and Marni Nixon were very young members of the Roger Wagner Chorale at about the time of this Palestrina recording. I wonder if they were at these tapings. Does anyone out there in cyberspace know?"