Vurdering: 3/5

"Editor's choices - March 2019: The spacious acoustic of Gent's Sint-Machariuskerk provides an appropriately contemplative atmosphere for this account of Liszt's meditations on the Stations of the Cross, written towards the end of the composer's life but only premiered in 1929; the crystal-clear upper voices blend ideally in the Stabat Mater, and in De Leeuw's hands the piano interludes seem to foreshadow Messiaen's Vingt regards"

"Was für ein karges, sperriges, zugleich innigliches Werk! Franz Liszts letztes grosses Kirchenmusikwerk ist ein starkes Bekenntnis zum christlichen Glauben ... Reinbert de Leeuw ... hat er es jetzt mit dem Collegium Vocale Gent aufgenommen. Das ... Ensemble präsentiert sich bei dieser Aufnahme erneut als ebenso souveräner wie wandlungsfähiger Klangkörper. Auch die drei ergänzende Werke ... heben die Exzellenz des Vokalensembles hervor"

"This is spare, ascetic music, hewn from a mysterious alchemy of complexity and purity ... The probing, indefatigable pianist, conductor and composer Reinbert de Leeuw has made a career out of a close embrace with the ascetic. His two most recent collaborations with Barbara Hannigan were each greatly lauded ... He really does know this piece inside out and in this new reading he proves to be the most illuminating of guides. Initially Via Crucis may seem cool, even astringent, but greater familiarity enables the responsive listener to appreciate a searching, intense vision. It is compellingly realised here by de Leeuw in league with the sixteen voices of Philippe Herreweghe's regular collaborators, Collegium Vocale Gent"