Magnificat

Magnificat

Magnificat was formed in 1991 and specialises in the restoration and performance of neglected choral masterpieces of the 16th and 17th centuries. Many of its young professional singers are former Oxford and Cambridge choral scholars or were trained at the country's leading music conservatories. The choir ranges from four to forty voices and has performed a wide range of music, both a cappella and with its own orchestra of period instruments, with the intention of matching the style of performance with the particular demands of the chosen work.

In association with Linn Records, Magnificat has undertaken many recording projects of music from 'The Golden Age'. The first of these comprises motets by Gesualdo, Guerreri, Josquin, Rebelo and Victoria together with Allegri's Miserere and Palestrina's Stabat Mater.

A highly acclaimed recording of Victoria's Officium Defunctorum 1605 (CKD 060), named a 1997 'Critics Choice' by Gramophone Magazine and chosen by the Rough Guide as one its '100 Essential Classical CDs', was followed by a disc of music by the neglected Spanish master, Philippe Rogier, including the Missa Ego sum qui sym (CKD 109).

In 2004 Linn Records released Magnificat's recording of music by Thomas Tallis (CKD 233). Hailed by Gramophone Magazine as 'quite the best recording' of the forty-part motet Spem in alium, the disc also contains the Lamentations, the four part mass and Latin motets

In November 2004, Magnificat was honoured to be the 2004 recipient of the American Musicological Society's Noah Greenberg award, granted in recognition of an outstanding scholarly and artistic endeavour. The award will provide support for a project featuring the music of Renaissance composer Philippe Rogier, and will include the 'Missa Inclina Domine'. This will continue Magnificat's exploration of the works of this long-neglected master, which began with its award-winning recording of the 'Missa Ego sum qui sum' (Linn CKD 109).