Julian Perkins & Emma Abbate
70:43
Resonus RES10210
+ Clementi: Sonata in E flat, op 14/3
[dropcap]A[/dropcap] review of the first volume of Julian Perkins and Emma Abbate’s survey of Mozart piano duets appeared in February 2017. This second volume completes the survey and – as with vol. 1 – throws in an extra work by a contemporary. Also like its predecessor the instruments used come from the collection built up by Richard Burnett at Finchcocks, where the earlier issue was recorded. This time the Mozart sonatas are played on a grand fortepiano built by Michael Rosenberger in Vienna around 1800, the Clementi on an undated instrument built by the Clementi company in London in the 1820s. The Rosenberger is an instrument of rich tonal quality that suits the scale of the great F-major Sonata rather better than the early K19d, for which I found it rather too beefy. The sound, too, is a little more resonant than that on the earlier issue.
Much the most important work here is K497, which dates from 1786, a year of exceptionally rich achievement for Mozart, including of course Le nozze di Figaro. From the outset of the beautifully poised Adagio that prefaces the opening Allegro, the work displays total mastery of intricate dialogue between the players, a real sense of contrasted textures between solo and concertante writing and, as one might expect at this period, considerable contrapuntal complexity. There is, too, as one might equally expect of a work dating from the year of Figaro, a strong dramatic element, tense in the development of the opening movement, of a more playful buffo nature in the finale.
Mozart was already displaying an inherent sense of drama in K19d, composed just over 20 years earlier, almost certainly for him and his sister Nannerl to play, as the famous family portrait of 1780-81 probably illustrates. It is a work of considerable charm and fun that calls for much fleet finger-work of the kind impressively supplied by Perkins (who I throughout mention first not from any lapse of manners but because he plays primo) and Abbate, who as on the earlier CD add often witty ornamentation in repeats. Curiously, they here repeat the second half of the opening Allegro where Mozart did not ask for it, but fail to do so in the outer movements of K497, where he did.
The final Mozart work is an oddity, a hybrid work consisting of two incomplete movements originally published by Andre in 1853 and included in Mozart Neue Ausgabe in this form. Later paper dating by Alan Tyson established that the opening Allegro had no connection with the following Andante, which is not only cast in a much simpler style but dates from three years later (1791). Nonetheless this has not prevented Robert Levin from undertaking a completion, which to my ears forms an uncomfortable juxtaposition between the inventive complexity of the opening movement and the Andante.
The Clementi sonata sits uneasily here, particularly since it follows K497 in the running order. It is indeed rather devoid of significant substance, being full of showy passagework that demands considerable dexterity from the performers but not a lot of concentration from the listener. Doubtless it might make a better effect in other company.
As already suggested, the stylish, fluent performances maintain the high level attained in the first disc. I did wonder if more might have been made of Mozart’s dynamic contrasts in K497’s opening Adagio, but that’s a minor point in the context of such thoroughly rewarding and sympathetic playing.
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The Mozartists, Ian Page
144:50 (2 CDs with a thick booklet in a cardboard sleeve)
Signum Classics SUGCD534
Music by Abel, T. Arne, Arnold, J. C. Bach, Bates, Duni, Mozart, Perez, Pescetti & Rush (including 11 premiere recordings)
[dropcap]I[/dropcap]t is hard to think of a more valuable or ambitious long term musical project than Ian Page and Classical Opera’s Mozart 250. At its heart, of course, is the plan to record all the composer’s operas over a period of 27 years, yet of arguably even greater importance is the parallel conception of placing Mozart’s compositional career within the chronological context of examining his music in relation to that of his contemporaries.
The present issue takes us back to the beginnings with the concert given at Milton Court in 2015 devoted to Mozart’s earliest significant period of compositional activity, the time spent by the Mozart family in London during his childhood in 1764-5. In addition to works by Mozart, it includes not only J. C. Bach, Abel and Arne, but also first recordings by composers of Italian opera working in London in addition to rarely heard English theatre music. It is a measure of the thought and scholarship that Page puts into the project that not only does the selection provide a snapshot of music in London in the mid-1760s, but that the works we hear are not just random choices but music that sheds a more direct light on the music that influenced Mozart and his own tastes. Thus the Abel symphony chosen is his op. 7/6 in E flat, a work justifiably copied by the boy (albeit substituting clarinets for oboes) and indeed until fairly recently known as Mozart’s ‘Symphony No 3, K 18’, while J. C. Bach’s heart-easing aria ‘Cara la dolce fiamma’ (from Adriano in Siria) was later embellished by Mozart with his own ornamentation.
Mozart’s indebtedness to Bach’s London-based son is well known, his assimilation of Bach’s bright liveliness and elegant, galant Italianate lyricism clearly apparent in the three symphonies included, Nos. 1 in E flat (K 16), 4 in D (K 19) and the relatively recently discovered F-major Symphony (K 19a). But here too is already the love of interplay and imitation between parts that predict the future supreme contrapuntal master of the 1780s. Here as well, especially in the development of allegro movements, is the innate sense of drama that heralds the born man of the theatre, even more potently evident in ‘Va, dal furor portata’ K 21, set to a text by Metastasio. It is an astonishing achievement made the more so when we realise it was the child’s first aria, its dark poignancy stressed by the turn to minor in the second half of the main section. J. C. Bach’s dominance of the London Italian opera scene during this period is recognised by the inclusion of four of his seria arias, particularly notably the accompanied recitative and aria ‘Ah, come/Deh lascia, o ciel pietoso’ from Adriano in Siria, first given at the King’s Theatre on 26 January 1765, which, as Page notes, was the day before Mozart’s ninth birthday. We don’t know if Mozart was given a birthday treat, but if he attended the premiere or a subsequent performance he will have noted the dramatic effect made by the accompagnato and contrast of the eloquent dignity of the succeeding aria. He would surely have equally been delighted by Bach’s concertante writing for oboes and horns.
English music is also featured, not only in the shape of two airs from Thomas Arne’s hugely successful English adaptation of Artaxerses (an opera recorded complete by Page), the sole surviving attempt at an English adaptation of dramma per musica, but also two arias from his unknown oratorio Judith (1765). The first is the beguiling ‘Sleep, gentle cherub’, a fine illustration of the composer’s melodic gifts. The lighter genre of English theatre music is represented by music by Arne and Samuel Arnold, along with such forgotten figures as George Rush and William Bates. If this unpretentious music sounds slight to our ears, it is worth recalling that in the 1760s many an Englishman greatly preferred it to the grander utterances of Italian seria.
The theatre pieces have very different demands to the challenges of seria arias, being written for singing actors able to project them with character rather than virtuosity, requirements well met here by tenor Robert Murray and soprano Rebecca Bottone. The Italian opera extracts (and the Arne) are divided between no fewer than four different sopranos, mezzo Helen Sherman and tenor Ben Johnson, who is excellent in K 21, catching the rhetoric of the aria impressively. In keeping with Page’s admirable policy of encouraging young artists, all the women are promising singers who acquit themselves well within the confines of the technique today taught singers who engage with early music, singing passage work with assurance and (mostly) ornamenting tastefully. I was particularly impressed with Martene Grimson in cantabile arias by Pescetti from the pasticcio Ezio (Kings Theatre, 1764) and the fine ‘Se non ti moro’ by the Neapolitan Davide Perez, a composer who remains too little known, from another pasticcio, Solimano (King’s Theatre, 1765). Grimson sings both arias with great sensitivity, shaping the long melisma on the word ‘dubitiai’ (doubted) in the Pescetti quite exquisitely. Otherwise all the singers here lack the ability to control both volume and vocal quality in the upper register, especially where upward leaps are concerned. This is an all-too-depressingly common feature of early music singing, making unstylish ascents into the stratosphere at fermatas and cadences about as unwise as Icarus’ flight across the heavens. Nonetheless, as state-of-the-art singing this is about as good as it gets in all but exceptional cases. Page’s accompaniments are unerringly supportive, while his accounts of the orchestral pieces are as musical and as idiomatic as one has come to expect from one of today’s leading Mozartians, though I did wonder if the enchanting opening movement of K 16 might have been allowed to relax a little more. Given the length of the concert, the odd slips of string ensemble are entirely forgivable.
This is a long review, but given its musical and documentary importance I’m not inclined to apologise. It simply needs to be added that the set is further enhanced by Ian Page’s outstanding commentaries on each work and that the less than outstanding sound is of minimal consequence in the context of so much splendid music making.
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[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his selection of music from around the fringes of the North Sea for a mixed consort of wind and stringed instruments includes some good-going dance music by William Brade and Anthony Holborne, as well as fine music by Antonio Bertali, Thomas Baltzar, Melchior Schmidt, Johann Sommer and Johann Schop. The programme emphasizes the musical links promoted by the lively Hanseatic trade network, but at the same time the musical diversity cultivated within the lands of the League. In Echo under the direction of cornettist Gawain Glenton play with tremendous authority and musicality, bringing out the diverse colours of the music they have chosen. To my taste, the inclusion of a contemporary work by Andrew Keeling, Northern Souls, which seems to owe more to Aaron Copland than the music around it, is a bit of self-indulgence, which adds little to the programme. In Echo are a new signing to Delphian Records, and on the basis of this fine CD they are quite an acquisition. We look forward to their exploration of further twilit corners of musical Europe.
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Music from Handel’s London Theatre Orchestra
Olwen Foulkes recorder, Nathaniel Mander harpsichord, Carina Drury cello, Toby Carr theorbo, Tabea Debus bass recorder
64:04
Barn Cottage Records bcr019
Music by Blow, Castrucci, Corelli, Geminiani, Handel, Giuseppe Sammartini & anon
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his intriguing and imaginative programme takes as its starting point concerts given by recorder players prior to and after the arrival in London of Handel. Jacques Paisible had popularized the instrument towards the end of the 17th century, and Olwen Foulkes makes the reasonable assumption that instrumental concerts from then onwards would have featured popular works transcribed for recorder and continuo. Assuming that many of these transcriptions would have remained in repertoire, it is not inconceivable that Handel could indeed have directed such diverse programmes. Olwen Foulkes is a lovely recorder player, with a fulsome tone and very musical approach on a range of recorders including descants, treble and voice flute. Her phrasing and effortless decoration are exemplary and extremely persuasive, and she is ably supported by a range of other fine musicians. This barn-storming performance will delight recorder players everywhere, but is also of much wider interest as a window on a period when musicians happily ‘borrowed’ extensively from each other to satisfy public demand.
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Guillermo Turina cello, Eugenia Boix soprano, Tomoko Matsuoka harpsichord
[Cantatas and Sinfonie di violoncello a solo]
71:54
Cobra Records COBRA 0063
[dropcap]B[/dropcap]orn and raised in Venice, Giacomo Facco took a post with the Spanish Spinola family who rose to power in Sicily before being expelled and returning to Spain, where Facco joined them for the rest of his life. The present CD selects music from his major publications consisting of cantatas for soprano, cello and continuo, interspersed with sinfonias for cello and continuo. While the cantatas he published while working in Italy are a little pedestrian, the later Spanish-period works sound more convincing. However, none of the cantatas sound as interesting as Facco’s innovative and engaging sinfonias for cello and harpsichord. This is partly due on the present CD to Guillermo Turino’s exciting technique on the Baroque cello, which brings these latter works to life, and contrasts with Eugenia Boix’s rather swooping accounts of the cantatas, which I found a little wearing after a while. Frankly, it is hard to account for the enormous enthusiasm shown by Facco’s fans, including his first biographer Uberto Zanolli, who entitled his book ‘Giacomo Facco : Master of Kings’. To my ear, Facco’s idiom is very conventional, and it came as no surprise to read in the notes that he was sidelined from his final post at the Spanish Court in Madrid by the arrival of the great Farinelli.
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Yale Schola Cantorum, David Hill
70:24
hyperion CDA68210
+Benedicta sit sancta Trinitas,* Confitebor tibi Domine, Introduxit me rex,* Loquebantur variis linguis,* Magnificat primi toni & Ricercar del quinto tuono* (*played by Bruce Dickey cornett, and Liuwe Tamminga organ); Ricercar del sesto tuono (organ solo)
[dropcap]I[/dropcap] can still remember being stunned by the 1996 Dorian CD (DIS 80146) of polychoral music by Victoria sung by Saint Clement’s Choir, Philadelphia – I had no idea that American choirs could and did sound so good. We ignore the American choral scene at our peril, as it is a sophisticated and well-financed sector which produces excellent results. Under the direction of David Hill, Yale Schola Cantorum produce a truly beautiful performance of the ordinary of Palestrina’s double-choir Missa Confitebor tibi Domine, preceded by the motet he based it on, the eight-part Magnificat primi toni and various instrumental goodies. The instrumental works are played by the legendary Bruce Dickey on the cornett and Liuwe Tammingo on the organ, the latter also contributing a solo organ Ricercar. These instrumental tracks were recorded in Bologna, allowing Tammingo access to what sounds like an appropriate period instrument although no details are given, whereas the choral music was recorded in the lavish acoustic of Christ Church, New Haven, Connecticut. Built upon a clearly very dynamic church music tradition at Yale, the Schola Cantorum produce a beautifully refined sound and with David Hill at the helm give an intelligent and thoroughly musical account of Palestrina’s music. Add to this admirable package a cogent and very readable note by the authoritative Noel O’Reagan and the result is extremely impressive in every respect.
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Passacaglia Baroque ensemble
70:08
Barn Cottage Records bcr017
Transcriptions of Vivaldi by Bach, Chédeville & Passacaglia
[dropcap]P[/dropcap]assacaglia are renowned for their wonderfully passionate and detailed playing, and for their custom of arranging Baroque music to suit their instrumental ensemble. This CD illustrates both these characteristics. It features arrangements by later composers – J. S. Bach and Nicolas Chédeville – of Vivaldi’s music, which then undergoes a further transformation at the hands of Passacaglia, who re-instrument it all over again. While I love their lively playing, I find that some of their arrangements have something of a ‘mock-Baroque’ feeling to them, with some of the instruments, particularly the recorders, being asked to do rather unidiomatic things in rather unidiomatic keys. Of course, in the hands of the wonderfully virtuosic Annabel Knight and Louise Bradbury, the playing is never less than superbly accomplished, but sometimes it all sounds a little contrived. The group’s rearrangements of Chédeville’s transcriptions for musette or hurdy-gurdy of two of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, where a hurdy-gurdy is ‘enhanced’ by recorders and a violin along with continuo instruments, seems to me to be neither one thing or another – or rather a whole new thing conjured up by Passacaglia. We have all heard the Vivaldi original and I have heard Chédeville’s transcription on a hurdy-gurdy, both of which are very effective, but what is this? I am always puzzled by Baroque ensembles who feel bound to create their own versions of Baroque music, given that there is such a treasury of music from the period out there which has never seen the light of day. You will enjoy the wonderfully fresh playing on this CD, but I must say I prefer my Baroque music less comprehensively ‘under cover’.
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Manuel Staropoli recorders & Baroque flute, Massimo Marchese theorbo
228:18 (4 CDs in a case)
Brilliant Classics 95595
[dropcap]I[/dropcap]n this four-CD account of the complete works of Robert de Visée, the performers have taken creative though entirely justifiable liberties with the instrumentation to involve instruments such as the recorder and Baroque flute known to have been in vogue in Versailles at the time and to give the music the genuine sound of chamber music. The resulting performances are pleasing and reveal in exhaustive detail de Visée’s talents as a composer. With very little known about him as an individual, we rely on the music to characterize both the period and its composer, and this it does very well. If perhaps four CDs of this music could be regarded as ‘peak de Visée’, we should remember that it would never have been performed en masse like this, rather whiling away Royal ennuies interspersed with other solo, chamber and larger-scale music. Given the limitations of the music and the ensemble, the performers do a fine job alternating the instruments and bringing the music charmingly to life. Just kick off your dancing pumps, hang up your wig, channel your inner Roi Soleil and sit back and enjoy this never less than elegant Musique de la Chambre du Roi. For more active listeners, the brief programme notes find room to list the instruments used as well as the few facts that are known about de Visée.
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[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his account of Schütz’s Historia der Auferstehung Jesu Christi intercut with items from Johann Hermann Schein’s Israelsbrünnlein is not without its controversial aspects. Firstly the idea of presenting the music by the two composers in alternating numbers, one piece often emerging seamlessly from the previous one, is a radical idea. I can’t think the music would ever have been performed in this form at the time, but to my mind it works very well. Also controversial is the choice of the Lebanese singer Georges Abdallah for the Evangelist in the Schütz. He is described as a ‘chantre Byzantin’ and decorates Schütz’s simple recitative with an encrustation of decorative ornaments in the manner of Byzantine chant. Again, there will be those for whom this crosses a red line, but I have to say I found that Schütz’s rather long workaday recits were remarkably animated by this unorthodox (or rather orthodox in its truest sense) approach. The accompanying instruments in both the Schütz and Schein were wonderfully sonorous and expressive, and not backward in decorating their lines and even graphically evoking the dramatic quakes, storms and other circumstances of the text. This is an account which has been much thought about and meticulously prepared and, while I can see that certain aspects are difficult to justify academically, I found the resulting performance powerful, expressive and musically convincing. The wonderfully warm acoustic of the Chapel Royal at Versailles enhances the sound, and I found myself drawn into a remarkably involving account of this great music. My only two gripes are that the Schütz is not performed in its entirety, and that the programme note is in the annoying form of an interview with the director – I find that the disembodied interviewer never asks the questions I would like to have answered.
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The Cardinall’s Musick, Andrew Carwood
77:39
hyperion CDA68250
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his piledriver of a disc consists of the six votive antiphons – mighty works, most of which clock in at well over ten minutes – extracted from the Tallis Edition which The Cardinall’s Musick, aka TCM, recorded on five discs between 2005 and 2016, as a successor to the thirteen discs of their prizewinning Byrd Edition. Also present is the ubiquitous and incongruously tiny hymn O nata lux. This was included presumably as a reassuring lure to buyers well disposed to Tallis but unfamiliar with the longest works on the album, or perhaps simply because there was room for such a short item; in any event, I wish that the less familiar but equally fine Euge caeli porta had been given the nod.
The quality of all the performances is very high, though not entirely consistent. On a few occasions the solo voices in the duets or trios that open these antiphons are, if not actually flat, on the underside of the notes. That said, Andrew Carwood’s interpretations are consistently and unfailingly perceptive. Also these interpretations respond to the acoustic of the recording venue, Fitzalan Chapel, Arundel Castle, so that pacing and balance between the parts is ideal, never so brisk as to obscure individual detail yet maintaining a pulse appropriate to the texture and indeed the texts themselves. There are some formidably fine alternative versions of all these pieces; the USP (unique selling point) of this disc is of course that all six votive antiphons are, so to speak, here under the one roof.
The first surviving reference to Tallis is as organist of Dover Priory in 1531, after which he joined the musical staff of Canterbury Cathedral. One of the earliest pieces on this album is Ave Dei patris filia. David Allinson, from whose Antico edition it is sung, has established that Tallis owes much to Fayrfax’s setting (recorded by TCM on Gaudeamus CD GAU 142) and it required some serious reconstructive surgery by the editor to render it performable. Most alternative versions of these works are by fellow adult chamber choirs, but the most significant comparison for this and the two other earliest works is on Thomas Tallis: the Canterbury Years performed by The Choir of Canterbury Cathedral (Metronome MET CD 1014). This outstanding release also includes Ave rosa sine spinis and Salve intemerata. Here is truly a case where anyone with a penchant for this repertory should definitely possess both recordings. TCM has all the virtues of a specialist and experienced adult chamber choir, as delineated in the previous paragraph. Canterbury take nearly three extra minutes over Ave Dei patris filia, exploiting their cathedral’s generous acoustic, while showcasing their remarkable trebles and expert lay clerks; the delivery by the latter of the first half of the concluding Amen is one of the most memorable and gripping passages of singing in any recording of this repertory. It has been suggested that the relatively shorter Ave rosa sine spinis was composed for the more modest resources at Dover. Yet again Canterbury provide a penetratingly committed and perceptive performance of another slightly rambling master piece (in the old sense of a piece of work presented by a journeyman in order for it to be evaluated as being worthy of a craftsman), as they do the more musically concise but much longer Salve intemerata which they hold together through a combination of passionate commitment and sheer beauty in response to Tallis’s tighter construction, allied again to a sensitive response to the cavernous acoustic in which they are performing. For their part TCM provide an almost forensic response to Tallis’s music, with not an harmonic moment or incident overlooked, but then again, neither do Canterbury miss a trick with their more leisurely though equally purposeful gait. If one were focusing on just the Canterbury works, with the Missa Salve intemerata an added attraction, this luminous recording by Canterbury Cathedral Choir, which seems to exude their pride in having Tallis as one of their predecessors, is an essential consideration.
Another male liturgical choir, that of King’s College, Cambridge under David Willcocks, provides the most interesting comparison with TCM’s rendering of the more compact Sancte Deus for higher voices. Sir David’s recordings of Tallis were revelatory in their day and set the benchmark, either to be emulated or reacted against. In any event, as demonstrated by King’s recording of this antiphon, they possess the timeless virtues of sensitivity to recording location, to the meaning of the text, and to internal balance in relation to overall sound. Meanwhile TCM’s version is as good as it gets when sung by an adult professional chamber choir populated by specialists.
The same can be said about their reading of Gaude gloriosa dei mater, a mature work to set beside Tye’s psalm setting Peccavimus cum patribus or William Mundy’s Vox patris caelestis “for substance” as Thomas Tomkins might have said. Here the most intriguing comparison is with the recent recording by Alamire (Obsidian CD716) directed by David Skinner, co-founder with Andrew Carwood of TCM. Divergent career exigences necessitated his withdrawal from TCM’s Byrd Edition after disc nine of the thirteen, and while Andrew became Master of the Choristers at St Paul’s Cathedral, David fetched up at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge in the same role, and founded his own choir, Alamire. The USP of the disc on which his recording of Gaude gloriosa appears – Thomas Tallis, Queen Katherine Parr & Songs of Reformation – is that the work appears twice: beginning the disc as a votive antiphon, and concluding it as an English contrafactum with words provided by Henry VIII’s final queen who seems to have commissioned Tallis to set her words to the music of his antiphon. Alamire’s Latin version is 28 seconds shorter than TCM’s, and feels it, while the English contrafactum is a further three seconds shorter but – probably appropriately given the politico-religious agenda behind it – feels even more driven. If Alamire’s version occasionally glosses over some of the internal details that are more audible in TCM’s recording, it is nevertheless still a fine achievement and provides a fascinating insight into an aspect of Tudor history. There is also a recording by a male liturgical choir, that of New College, Oxford, which is perfectly acceptable if one has a preference for such ostensibly more authentic choirs over those consisting of female and male adults (CRD3429). For all that this is a work of Tallis’s maturity, and therefore composed well into what we now call the Renaissance, there is an intriguing suggestion of the mediaeval at the words “quae corpore et anima” sung by a trio of inner parts.
Probably the latest of Tallis’s votive antiphons is Suscipe quaeso in which all of his compositional expertise – including the manipulation of textures, strong melodies, striking harmonies, rhetorical use of homophony within a mainly polyphonic framework – is encapsulated within a work half the length of the longest of his earliest attempts in this form, and is illustrated in microcosm by his setting of the word “peccavi” towards the end of the first section. Although no recordings by male liturgical choirs are currently available, there are some varied approaches from the adult chamber choirs. Again there is an alternative version by Alamire on their recording of the complete Cantiones sacrae published by Tallis and Byrd in 1575 (Obsidian CD706) here sung, perhaps a little too briskly to the occasional detriment of the audibility of inner parts, by single voices where TCM employ two per part. Another fine version, different in character from Alamire in being more sinewy, is provided on Thomas Tallis’s Secret Garden by Ensemble europeen William Byrd directed by Graham O’Reilly (Passacaille 963) who also include both Gaude gloriosa and Salve intemerata. The most radical version is by Clare Wilkinson and the Rose Consort of Viols on Four Gentlemen of the Chapel Royal (Deux-Elles DXL1129) which, given artistes of this outstanding quality, works well: one soon forgets that one is listening to a single voice (singing the superius part) and six viols rather than seven vocal parts.
It remains to say that TCM’s version of the ubiquitous O nata lux is the best and most satisfying (that final cadence … twice …!) that this reviewer has heard since when, as a schoolboy, he first heard it on the first of those two famous recordings of Tallis, mentioned above, by King’s College, Cambridge under David Willcocks. No doubt TCM will be happy to be mentioned in the same sentence as King’s in this context, and suffice to say (tongue now removed from cheek) that the compliment is sincere.
Whether one purchases this disc depends on the purchaser’s attitude to Tallis, Tudor music, owning duplicates, time, and money. Personally I own multiple versions of all these pieces, many of which I have had the pleasure of playing while researching and writing this review. I would not wish to be without any of those that I have mentioned, and if, in the tradition of Desert Island Discs, I had to make do with only one such recording, it would be the wonderfully atmospheric Canterbury disc containing the three earliest antiphons. If you already own recordings of all these pieces, you would still encounter fresh approaches to, and insights into, each one on TCM’s disc. If you own some of the works, it is worth purchasing this disc for those that you are missing. And if you have none of these pieces yet on disc (or the equivalent) do not hesitate to purchase it.
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