deFilharmonie & Collegium Vocale Gent . Philippe Herreweghe

At first glance Philip Herreweghe and Igor Stravinsky seem to be musically poles apart. The conductor with an almost sanctimonious respect for the original notes is juxtaposed with a composer who looks at historical music through twentieth-century eyes, setting everything to his own specifications. But in religion they find partnership. Stravinsky was a religious Russian-Orthodox Christian. His Mass and the Symphony of Psalms are believed to be his own religious vows and homage to God. He does this in the purest form in the Mass for mixed chorus and double wind quintet. His Symphony of Psalms is not a Symphony with sung psalms, but as Stravinsky said "it is the singing of psalms that I symphonise". Herreweghe's objective musical approach works extremely well with the disciplined writing style of these works.