Music : Karl Jenkins: Stabat Mater

Rating: - Another Classic
My favourite Karl Jenkins work has to be 'The Armed Man', however, I do also enjoy this new work very much. It has a range of different moods and transports the listener from one side of the world to another. Loads of classic Jenkins in this music, you can hear some of the inspiration coming from some of hie earlier works. However you can also hear new ideas and influences from his travels to Eastern Europe.

Overall, a very moving piece of music, one that I am sure will become very popular.

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Rating: - A Bitter Disappointment
I attended the Premier at Liverpool Cathedral and was bitterly disappointed. Far from being a single piece that relates the Stabat Mater to comtemporary themes, it feels more like a repetitive and unimaginative setting of the Stabat, interrupted by more emotional pieces on other texts. It is clear that Jenkins's heart is in these other sections, which vary from alarming to heart-breaking but are never dull (hence three stars, not one). The rest is just "Jenkins by numbers": strong, syncopated percussion backed by heavy strings and urgent brasses, long crescendo, then timp roll & gong. Repeat without variation for 45 minutes. You've heard this before and may well like it. It does little for me.

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Rating: - Not perfect but not far off
I'm not sure this album is a masterpiece. In places the music can be repetative and slightly unimaginative. That sounds like a much bigger criticism than it really is though. I gave this album 5 stars becase where the music itself may lack the arrangements and the performances more than make up. Belinda Sykes voice is nothing short of breathtaking. The unlikely mix of arabic and baroque sounds works to provide an endlessly interesting texture through which Belinda Sykes weaves a thread of beauty the like of which I have never heard before.

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Rating: - The brilliant Karl Jenkins does it again!
This is Karl Jenkins (famous for his Adiemus albums, the well known Cheltenham and Gloucester TV ad, the Delta Airlines commercial, and most recently the Linx TV ad) at his best and most inspired since the Armed Man, A Requiem for Peace. A true fan, I have already bought my tickets for the world premiere concert in Liverpool Cathedral on the 15 March, and can't wait. He has lovingly written this work of heart-wrenching beauty. No wonder he is always at the top of the list in the Classic FM Hall of Fame year after year.

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Rating: - Another masterpiece from Karl
We recently performed The Armed Man in my choir and it's one of the most beautiful and moving pieces of music I think I've ever had the pleasure of singing. I've heard a few extracts from this new Stabat Mater and I can't wait to hear the full CD, then hopefully we'll perform it before too long. This man is an incredible talent and his music touches your heart.