“ … the quartet was an imposing mass of high-vibrato sound, framed at the top by Rowley’s formidable soprano … Heard from the balcony, the soloists somehow created an acoustic that, in softer entrances, seemed to well up from an alternate world — a reminder that such alternative worlds are there for the finding.”
“Nézet-Séguin went for big voices in this performance, and the quartet that he assembled—soprano Jennifer Rowley, mezzo-soprano, Karen Cargill, tenor Rodrick Dixon, and bass-baritone Eric Owens—were superb in that and every other regard. Seldom does one encounter a quartet as vocally and artistically equipped to meet the challenges that Beethoven posed in the Missa solemnis.
Rowley had the ability to float serenely above the thickest of musical textures, or slice through them with astonishing ease. Her sweeping phrases in the Benedictus were especially exciting.”