Renaissance & Contemporary Choral Works
luminatus & David Bray
75:18
Convivium Records CR102
Dedicated to the performance of new and previously unrecorded choral music, luminatus under their director David Bray present music by the Renaissance masters Cipriano de Rore, Philippe de Monte, Ippolito Baccusi, Tiburtio Massaino, along with contemporary music by female composers including Agneta Sköld, Becky McGlade and Eleanor Daley. The unfamiliar Renaissance material is of high quality and is performed with languid elegance by the ensemble. Particularly impressive is the de Monte Mass based on a de Rore motet. The music of Massaino and Baccusi contains few surprises – Baccusi’s small body of compositions was published in Venice but little is known about his life and he is little performed. Massaino, by contrast, travelled widely and composed prodigiously in a variety of sacred and secular genres, occasionally betraying a musical debt to de Monte, whom he met in Prague and where much of his music was published. The contemporary choral music, settings of English texts, is uncontroversial and makes for unchallenging if pleasing listening. If I might have wished for more animation from the choir in some of the Renaissance repertoire, the contemporary music draws more dynamic singing from them. The ensemble is performing a valuable service in bringing this neglected early repertoire to our attention in such polished performances, while recordings of contemporary choral music, particularly with an emphasis on female composer,s are always welcome.
D. James Ross