Reviews

Arvo Pärt: Odes of Repentance

AllMusic

“Cappella Romana is an ideal match for Pärt's music.… This is a major Pärt recording that does not sound like any of the many others on the market.”
Arvo Pärt: Odes of Repentance

Choir & Organ

“here is pure Pärt. his sublime, distilled simplicity requiring and receiving total technical and emotional commitment.”
Arvo Pärt: Odes of Repentance

InfoDad

“saying that the Cappella Romana presentation of Pärt’s Odes of Repentance seems an ideal merger of composer and performers borders on cliché – which does not make the assertion any less true”
Arvo Pärt: Odes of Repentance

OperaWire

“distinct from others of Pärt’s music”
Arvo Pärt: Odes of Repentance

Classical-Modern Music

“a moving litany of rarified and heightened choral expression… perfection in…each of these beautiful works”
Arvo Pärt: Odes of Repentance

ConcertoNet

12 spellbinding tracks which give voice to the human yearning to be cleansed… the stars, the galaxies, all the wonders of a distant universe seem to touch us through the medium of sound.… this is an album of supreme artistry to cherish, heed, and enjoy.
a byzantine emperor at king henry's court

Fanfare

Fans of medieval liturgical music should snap this up without delay; strongly recommended.
Heaven and Earth

Classical-Modern Music Review

It all is breathtaking. In its realization of the spiritual connection between voice and light for both works, we get a music of illumination and shining forth, very primary with its droning and melodic-harmonic denseness. If you know Western Organum, this is the Eastern complement historically and a delight to experience.
Robert Kyr: All-Night Vigil

American Record Guide

one of our finest choirs specializing in the music of Christianity's Eastern branch… The writing conveys both darkness and light with enough spiritual oomph to keep an audience on its metaphysical toes… superb
a byzantine emperor at king henry's court

Concerto Net

this album… welcomes those who are new to the Eastern tradition. The blend of well‑performed music from strikingly different cultures teaches us that we, too, may hold hands, look deeply into each others’ eyes and become open to tolerance and understanding.
a byzantine emperor at king henry's court

All Music

a cross-cultural event of a sort rare in medieval times, and Cappella Romana brings it to life… this is a unique and fascinating medieval release.
a byzantine emperor at king henry's court

Planet Hugill

the singers are clearly steeped in the stylistic world of this music and it shows in their freedom, flexibility and that sense of an ensemble performing this regularly.…
a byzantine emperor at king henry's court

San Francisco Classical Voice

“This combination of repertory is practically unique among choral groups… a unique moment not only in musical history but history in general… immersion in history and scholarship sets the group apart. … ecstatic moments where you feel outside yourself is…what they do”
a byzantine emperor at king henry's court

Blogcritics

deeply researched… performed and recorded in Cappella Romana's usual superb quality.
Heaven and Earth

Concerto Net

this album provides a balanced program of music that is totally modern but bearing an indisputable imprint of Eastern Christian traditions. This balance and revelation is Cappella Romana’s unique gift to world music, a door opening to greater understanding and the expansion of our appreciation of beauty.
Heaven and Earth

Choir and Organ

This [album] works well, its atmospheric component pieces both varied and unified, not least by the composers' contrasting treatments of the doxologies and Alleluias.
Frank La Rocca: Mass of the Americas

HRAudio.net

Its beauty is impressively powerful… Frank La Rocca’s Mass of the Americas is as timeless as it is timely - thus succeeding with flying colours in the commission - and Richard Sparks and Company are its truly authentic interpreters.
Heaven and Earth

Infodad

the smooth and assured delivery of Cappella Romana keeps the work meaningful and communicative throughout… Ikon of Light is majestic, generally slow-paced, pervaded by a contagious sense of calm that creates an experience of time expansion…
Robert Kyr: All-Night Vigil

Infodad

the warmth, depth and sincerity of the singing in Kyr’s All-Night Vigil transcend the unfamiliarity of the material. The vocal sound here is simply beautiful: there is a full hour of elegantly phrased, emotionally penetrating, deeply sincere delivery both of choral material and of individual lines against a choral background.
Heaven and Earth

Dagogo

There is such sonic beauty and musical complexity in every track that layers and layers of harmony just keep pouring out into the listening space… one listen to this disc and you will realize the spirituality in all of humanity.