Bruckner's Mass No. 2 in E minor, WAB 27, was composed for mixed chorus, not for an English cathedral choir with boy sopranos, and listeners will make up their own minds about this departure from tradition. It's interesting that the late Choir of King's College, Cambridge, director Stephen Cleobury chose this work for his final recording with the choir: it's far from the group's usual wheelhouse, or his own, yet one can understand his motivations. The work is a real challenge for the singers, with long stretches of polyphony blooming into moments of radiant faith. Sample the Credo and listen to the glorious Resurrexit, and the appeal of Cleobury's approach becomes clear. The young singers do everything that's asked of them, and in its way, this is a virtuoso performance. In the short motets that make up the balance of the program, the ages of the singers are less of an issue, and the performances have the feel of a group that revels in its own space. The Locus iste is memorable in its soaring quality. Ultimately listener reactions here will depend on how they feel about the extension of boy singers into this repertory, but the album makes a fine swan song for Cleobury's always progressive and remarkable career.
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