At its Sunday afternoon concert at the Church of St. Ignatius of Antioch, where it is a resident ensemble, Amuse traced the development of sacred music from the barely adorned piety of medieval English chant to the more florid settings of the German and Italian Baroque.

The program’s central structural elements were three Magnificat settings. The first, a Salisbury chant — an English recasting of Gregorian plainsong — was a picture of simplicity: much of the text is chanted on a single tone, with movement only at the beginning and end of a line. In this arrangement by Alexander Blachly (the director of the group Pomerium), part of the choir provided a drone beneath the chant. It was an ideal way to introduce this choir’s charms, which include a pure, transparent tone and solid ensemble.

The second Magnificat, by John Dunstable, is from the late end of the medieval English repertory, and represents an enormous leap forward: namely, triadic harmony. (The bridge between plainsong and Dunstable was the primitive polyphony of a 12th-century setting of “Stillat in Stellam Radium.”)

A late Renaissance Magnificat would have been in order, but Amuse devoted the Renaissance section of its program to other things: a lovely Agnus Dei by Hans Leo Hassler, a rhythmically complex “Pueri Concinite” by Jacob Handl and a harmonically rich “Duo Seraphim” by Tomás Luis Victoria. So its final Magnificat was an appealingly florid late Baroque version by Nicola Porpora.

Here, and in a handful of short Telemann works, Ms. Boerger and her Amuse singers brought clarity to the music’s comparatively thick textures. But this choir’s real magic is in its delicate balance of serenity and intensity.

by Allan Kozinn
New York Times
9/25/07

Mr. Caines set this work to choruses by Thomas Tallis in honor of the 500th birthday of that great English composer of liturgical music. The contrapuntally complex scores swelled through the space with remarkable clarity and luminosity, thanks to the performance by the Tenebrae 2005 Chorus, conducted by Kristina Boerger, which was stationed at the sides of the space and on the steps of the church's altar.

by Jack Anderson
New York Times
6/18/05

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The very bright lighting design for "Tenebrae" seemed at odds with its title. Adding to the challenge of achieving balance between the music and the visual elements of this interdisciplinary creation was the captivating performance of the 40 singers assembled by Robb Moss for the "Spem in alium." With expert direction by conductor Kristina Boerger, the ensemble delivered crystal-clear and glorious singing...

by Douglas Frank
The Dance Insider
2005

These days the more adventuresome singers and choirs are taking up the same challenge. They arrange programs that give us food for thought as well as for love or for faith. They move easily across periods and continents. We start to think about history as we listen. It is a form of aural and emotional time travel.

The choral ensemble Cerddorion ("cerddorion" is Welsh for "music") celebrated its 10th anniversary last month with just this kind of program at the Church of St. Luke in the Fields. Under the fine artistic direction of Kristina Boerger, the 28-member group moved from 16th-century Spain to 21st-century North America with passion and discipline.

by Margo Jefferson
New York Times
12/11/04 

Slow-moving and spare in texture, this Mass [Ockeghem's Missa au Travail Suis] nevertheless thrives on its deeply emotional text setting, and it showed the 13-voice Pomerium at its polished and beautifully blended best. 

by Allan Kozinn
New York Times
10/05/04

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