Maximilian Steinberg: Passion Week

The Wall Street Journal Review

Steinberg: Passion Week

lush, occasionally delicate, graced by intermittent dissonances and touches of counterpoint. … Like Steinberg’s ‘Passion Week’ and the other neglected music it’s resurrected, Cappella Romana continues its ascent

“At St. Mary’s, the opening verses of the alleluia of ‘Passion Week,’ intoned in Church Slavonic by one of Cappella’s stentorian bass voices, seemed to portend another dose of the ensemble’s usual hieratic Byzantine and Russian austerity. But it was immediately and surprisingly soothed by soaring high harmonies from an all-star lineup of sopranos who also sing in choir-crazed Portland’s other top choruses and vocal ensembles. In fact, the entire ‘Passion Week,’ which lasted about an hour, proved unexpectedly gentle, sometimes even lush, occasionally delicate, graced by intermittent dissonances and touches of counterpoint. … Like Steinberg’s ‘Passion Week’ and the other neglected music it’s resurrected, Cappella Romana continues its ascent.”

–Brett Campbell