Are you tough enough to get through an entire hour of the most spiritual motets ever composed by an over-educated peasant from nineteenth century Austria? Are you tough enough to listen and listen hard to every sublime note of every blessed piece? Will your attention start to wander during the plainchant interludes of the Tota Pulchra Es Maria? Will you decide to skip the Ave Maria from 1856 and the Tantum Ergo from 1846 because they're derivative early works? Will you finally decide that while Bruckner was man enough to hymn the glory of God on his knees for a whole hour, you're just not tough enough to kneel there with him? But if you're going to kneel there with Bruckner, then Martin Flamig and every man and boy in the Dresden Kreuzchor will kneel there with you, parsing God with great praise. Of all the recordings ever made of Bruckner's motets by German or Austrian choirs over the years, Flamig and the Kreuzchor's from 1985 is among the most devotional and the most fervent. It doesn't hurt that the Kreuzchor's tone is so ardent and pure and that Flamig's direction is so austere and exalted, and it only helps that Capriccio's early sound is warm and clear. And if there have been more compelling performances of Bruckner's motets, there have been few more zealous. ~ James Leonard, All Music Guide
