"Within 36 hours, it was No. 6. Quigley says the viral explosion has been gratifying for many reasons, but most especially because many of the people who downloaded it were unfamiliar with Monteverdi.
"'Introducing a younger audience to this 400-year-old music," Quigley says, "was one of those fantastic things that happens only through the Internet.'" Read More...— Jeff Lunden,
NPR's All Things Considered
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"Said NPR's Jeff Lunden of the CD, 'It promptly landed in the Top 10 classical recordings on iTunes, sandwiched between the London Symphony Orchestra's Beethoven and Yo-Yo Ma's Bach. What makes this surprising is that the recording is by a little-known Miami-based professional choir called Seraphic Fire - and the musicians released it themselves.'" Read More...— Ben Crandell,
South Florida Sun Sentinel
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"Whether Patrick Dupre Quigley is leading his remarkable chamber choir Seraphic Fire in Renaissance polyphony, Baroque cantatas, contemporary minimalism or down-home indigenous song, he produces the most ravishing vocal sonorities, marked by scrupulous attention to dynamics and ensemble precision." Read More...— Lawrence Budmen,
South Florida Classical Review
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"Fans of Seraphic Fire expect precision, vocal beauty and musical intelligence from the ensemble's performances.
"What they don't expect from the 18-member choir is grandeur on the large scale.
"But for its final concerts of the season, Seraphic Fire is augmented by the 44 singers from the Western Michigan University Chorale for a sweeping, powerful performance of Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610." Read More...— David Fleshler,
Miami Herald
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"Although the popular image of these works is as grim devotionals, intoned by monks in dark monasteries or submissive congregations under a bishop's stern gaze, the chants performed Thursday came off as musically varied, richly expressive compositions, evocative of a remote time and religious sensibility, but clearly forming an important part of our musical heritage." Read More...— David Fleshler,
South Florida Classical Review
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"Handel's 1738 setting of the Old Testament story of plagues, Moses and the flight to Canaan has the driving power of opera, and the choir gave an energetic, technically excellent performance that will be repeated in Coral Gables, Fort Lauderdale and Miami Beach. Although the choir performed the shorter chamber version, there was no lack of grandeur as a double chorus and orchestra filled the church with Handel's music." Read More...— David Fleshler,
Miami Herald
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"... the performance was brilliantly successful. The chorus's ten solo members delivered their important parts with expression, glorious tone, and freedom to embellish their vocal lines. This they did with security and agility, without ever seeming to impart any unidiomatic showiness to the music." Read More...— Alan Becker,
South Florida Classical Review
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"The choir's 13 singers - all rigorously selected and arriving from all over the United States - performed with their usual pure tones, sensitive phrasing and perfect harmonic balances, and did so in seven languages - English, Old English, German, Italian, Ukrainian, Latin and Old Church Slavonic." Read More...— David Fleshler,
South Florida Classical Review
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"The versatile choir alternately conveyed the exultation of a revival meeting or brought classical restraint to such familiar gospel favorites as Sweet Beulah Land. Going Up Home to Green Pastures received lilting treatment, the women's voices angelic in utterance." Read More...— Lawrence Budmen,
South Florida Classical Review
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"Still, the most important thing was the sheer sound, and this concert of music by Palestrina, Josquin, Dufay and Festa was an intense, riveting journey into the often-severe beauty of sacred music written in the 15th and 16th centuries. At all times, the choir offered a smooth, unbroken, beautiful texture, creating that special sense of timelessness that distinguishes the Western sacred music of this period." Read More...— Greg Stepanich,
Palm Beach ArtsPaper
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"The most effective performance came in Gregorio Allegri's Miserere, where Quigley deployed singers to the side and back of the church, creating a rich, deeply resonant sound, highlighted by superb, passionate and beautifully phrased soprano work." Read More...— David Fleshler,
Miami Herald
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"We may be in the doldrums of summer, but thanks to Seraphic Fire, we have a summer concert series of considerable interest to enlighten and help pass the time until the fall season." Read More...— Alan Becker,
South Florida Classical Review
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"Only one word seems apt enough to characterize the musical artistry the members of Seraphic Fire demonstrated at Wednesday's summer-season opening concert: destiny.
"The choral group's perfect balance of tone quality, control, range and dynamic variation far exceeded expectations in its 15-song performance of American folk and gospel music." Read More...— Andrea Asuaje,
Miami Herald
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"Again Seraphic Fire showed it can push the repertorial envelope without ripping it." Read More...— David Fleshler,
South Florida Classical Review
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"In its final program of the season, the choir Seraphic Fire is taking us to the late Renaissance court of the Duke of Mantua, where the orchestra boasted two remarkable musicians." Read More...— David Fleshler,
South Florida Classical Review
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"Director Patrick Dupre Quigley, who has just finished recording Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610 with his group and the Western Michigan University Chorale, offered sacred works by Monteverdi (in Latin) and Rossi (in Hebrew) as well as four secular pieces by Rossi, on a program Quigley called The Jew and the Gentile. The result was enlightening, moving, and ultimately absorbing: here was music from a fascinating time, full of color, beauty and innovation." Read More...— Greg Stepanich,
Palm Beach ArtsPaper
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"Patrick Dupré Quigley, the Miami concert choir's artistic director, says that Rossi's music is not only as accomplished as that of other Italian composers of his day but that it also was innovative, particularly with regard to solo songs." Read More...— Greg Stepanich,
Miami Herald
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"One reason Seraphic Fire's performances have remained fresh and stimulating for seven seasons is because Patrick Dupre Quigley's programs have consistently defied expectations and challenged its audiences." Read More...— Lawrence A. Johnson,
Miami Herald
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"Crabtree's cantata, Sedebat Mater, was commissioned by Seraphic Fire director Patrick Dupre Quigley as a companion piece to the Pergolesi Stabat Mater ( Seated Mother as opposed to Standing Mother), and in its quirky, hyper-intelligent selection of texts -- including a Latin translation of the chorus to Paul Simon's Mrs. Robinson and a speech from Shakespeare's Coriolanus -- as well as its widely varied music, it was a well-wrought example of this composer's genially eclectic muse." Read More...— Greg Stepanich,
Palm Beach ArtsPaper
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"And Patrick Dupre Quigley, Seraphic Fire's artistic director, said Crouch was best suited to lead the effort. ''When we conceived this project, I knew that the only person I'd want to have at the helm would be Shawn Crouch,'' Quigley said." Read More...— Jessica Kirchner,
Miami Herald
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