COMPOSERS: Various
LABELS: Avie
ALBUM TITLE: Sacrum Mysterium
WORKS: A Celtic Christmas Vespers
PERFORMER: Apollo's Fire/Jeanette Sorell
CATALOGUE NO: AV2269
Truly, the world is a melting pot: here’s a Baroque ensemble based in Cleveland, Ohio, playing period instruments from central Europe, in music from the medieval Celtic tradition. This type of fusion is increasingly popular, and Apollo’s Fire do it enthusiastically, if perhaps without the final degree of finessed musicality that other ensembles bring to this type of project: rollicking traditional tunes sit a little uncomfortably alongside the plainchant used in excerpts from the Vespers of St Kentigern. A bonus 20-minute DVD completes the issue.