If you don't like the new ICEL translation ...



... why not have Venetian baroque instead? I found this spirited rendition of Vivaldi on YouTube; its verve and attack made me long more than ever one day to be able to sing High Mass with this setting of the Gloria. There is a debate about the tempo Vivaldi would have preferred for it: this conductor goes for what Private Baldrick might have called the "as fast a a very fast thing" option: a sort of Brands Hatch interpretation.

Below are parts two and three from the set. I know that half an hour for a Gloria is a bit longer than normal but we could all maybe sit down and say some prayers while drawing spiritual edification from such sublime music. As Pope Benedict pointed out, that too is active participation.

This wonderful performance does come apart at the seams once or twice, and there is slightly more shuffling and snorting than I really like, but it has such power that you just have to make allowances. As our friends across the ocean say, "If it ain't Baroque, don't mend it."



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