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Recording

William Mundy: Sacred Choral Music

Choir of St Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh, Duncan Ferguson Organist and Master of the Music
65:15
Delphian DCD 34204

[dropcap]“[/dropcap]They order, said I, this matter …” differently in Scotland. St Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh, which is in the Scottish Episcopal Church, part of the Anglican Communion, has the only surviving choir school in Scotland, where the Church of Scotland, aka The Kirk, which is presbyterian (no bishops!), is the Established Church. For some decades the choir has had a mixed treble line, and the occasional female alto lay-clerk. Since the arrival as OMM of Duncan Ferguson, the Choir has made many highly regarded recordings of demanding music throughout all generations, including two featuring Latin compositions by, respectively, Taverner and Sheppard. Their relatively neglected but equally gifted contemporary William Mundy is the focus of this new release, with another Latin programme that is demanding to sing, stimulating to hear, and altogether delightful.

To be clear, all the tracks listed above are interesting, rewarding and enjoyable, but two stand out: first, the Mary antiphon Maria virgo sanctissima. This is a premiere recording – not too surprising, as there are a certain number of Mundy’s motets which get the nod for recordings but quite a few others that continue to languish unrecorded. But apart from the fact that it is a magnificent piece which the Edinburgh choir drives to a fine climax in a quite glorious final amen, it also represents a collaboration with the most exciting project in recent years to feature Tudor music: this is “Tudor Partbooks: the Manuscript Legacies of John Sadler, John Baldwin and their Antecedents” which has been supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and led by an outstanding scholar of the music from this period, Magnus Williamson at Newcastle University. That the AHRC has provided funding for this initiative is massively praiseworthy. Part of the project involves digitizing these precious original manuscripts that – most significantly in the case of Sadler – are in a dangerously fragile state, but it also involves, where possible, making usable editions of works which are to a greater or lesser extent fragmentary. Maria virgo sanctissima lacks its tenor, and it has been provided by Magnus Williamson in the edition used for this recording; it is only appropriate that the logos of AHRC and “Tudor Partbooks” appear in the accompanying booklet.

The other stand-out work on this disc is the tripartite In exitu Israel  in which the first and longest section is by Sheppard, the senior composer of the trio; the second section is by Byrd (the booklet correctly disposes of suggested alternatives to the then (late 1550s) adolescent William); and the third section is by Mundy himself. The Cardinall’s Musick first recorded this historical oddity on the second disc of their Byrd Edition (Gaudeamus CD GAU 178) but the two versions could hardly be more different. It is a work to be sung in procession, and while TCM presents it as a static performance, albeit recorded in a Roman Catholic church, St Mary’s sings it while processing in the Cathedral, even with audible thurible at the required moment (disappointingly the thurifer is not credited in the booklet!). They sing the polyphonic sections at TTBarB pitch with their trebles chanting the plainsong, while TCM sing at SSAT with men chanting. Neither of these versions follows precisely the instructions in the Sarum liturgy in which the decani side of the choir should sing the plainsong and cantoris the polyphony. This would of course provide spatial differentiation during a live service or performance. Nevertheless both versions have the benefit of perhaps providing more aural variety for those listening to discs, when the spatial differentiation between decani and cantoris would not be so apparent. The sense of movement in a procession is well sustained by St Mary’s, and given that the disc features Mundy, it is appropriate that the polyphony becomes most distinct for his concluding contribution to this work. The booklet is clear about which verses are set by each composer.

There are two further premieres, both settings of Alleluia. Per te Dei genetrix  either side of the exquisite motet Sive vigilem  which is joined by two other fine shorter works, Beatus et sanctus, another motet, which gets the disc off to an excellent start, and the psalm setting Adolescentulus sum ego. We have had two stand-out works already, but without doubt the outstanding work on the disc, and the one best known, most discussed and most recorded, is the giant votive antiphon Vox patris caelestis. This has been the subject of two major articles in recent years by Kerry McCarthy and John Milsom. As in the Mary antiphon, there are resonances of the pieces in the Eton Choirbook, as Mundy marshals his vocal forces in a virtuoso display of contrasts, all the way using strong melodies, punctuated by occasional homophony as at “Te omnes” in a dramatic intervention towards the conclusion, to drive the music forward.

Performances are of a uniformly high level. The sound is unlike that of The Sixteen on the other disc devoted to Mundy’s music: that is very much the adult chamber choir giving perfect renditions in a selected (unspecified) acoustic (Helios CDH55086). St Mary’s is a liturgical choir, singing in its own cathedral, with trebles rather than sopranos and therefore, the presence of some girls (and a female alto) notwithstanding, closer to what Mundy would have expected. The overall sound seems more focused than on previous Tudor recordings by St Mary’s, giving a grainier texture to the lay clerks (there is one bass with quite an old-fashioned vibrato) and some grit to the trebles, but this is never to the detriment of the music, and reflects the authenticity of the performance: short of being there in Edinburgh, this is the next best alternative as a compact disc. Credit to all concerned: for choosing such a rewarding composer as Mundy, whose style effortlessly migrates from the floridity of the Eton Choirbook to the conciseness of the Elizabethan motet without losing his personal touch; for selecting a varied and interesting repertory; and for performing it in an accessible and engaging way.

Richard Turbet

Categories
Recording

Delight in Musicke

English songs and instrumental music of the 16th and 17th century
Klaartje van Veldhoven soprano, Seldome Sene recorder quintet
53:29
Brilliant Classics 95654
Music by Baldwine, Bennet, Byrd, Dowland, Gibbons, att. Nicholson, Purcell, Tye, Weelkes & anon

[dropcap]I[/dropcap]t’s a Beautiful Day … Soft Machine … Ten Years After … Spinal Tap. The 1960s pioneered the creative name among rock groups, and fifty years later Seldom Sene are mining the same vein as an ensemble performing Tudor and Stuart music. So, like their predecessors, do they … rock?

As on the previous recording that I reviewed recently in EMR (William Byrd: Consort Music and Songs  performed by B-Five – another edgy name – and Sunhae Im) a soprano is pitted against an accompaniment of recorders on several of the tracks. Of the 21 tracks here, slightly under half are songs. So how, in this instance, does the timbre of the singer fare in consort with the recorders, given the usual expectation that the accompaniment would be for viols? Perhaps a fraction better than Sunhae Im who, for all her impressive vocal accomplishment, cannot subdue vestiges of a vibrato deriving from her specialism in Baroque opera. Klaartje van Veldhoven’s timbre has less, indeed scarcely any, obtrusive vibrato and she blends more smoothly with her accompaniment. This is best illustrated in a performance of Purcell’s In nomine  of 6 parts in which she sings the plainsong (to the Latin text) with the quintet. The blend is ideal, while the effect is ethereal, almost (and perhaps actually) revelatory. Throughout the disc, the playing of the quintet is clear and precise while committed, with none of the pyrotechnics of B-Five. Indeed, Seldom Sene provide fresh approaches to pieces such as Byrd’s Browning and In nomine of 5 parts no. 5  and Tye’s title track (performed twice, at contrasting pitches) plus Purcell’s In nomine  and his Fantasia 5 parts upon one note  which are well known within their own genre. This provoked me to consider the disc’s unique selling point, or USP. Many in the same market are competing with fine music well performed. Why, apart from their luminous performances of the pieces I have just mentioned, should people purchase this disc? Part of the answer lies in the album’s margins. Alongside the two instrumental pieces, main man Byrd is represented by two songs. The sublime Ah silly soul  follows Dowland’s I shame at mine unworthiness which is impressive enough with its angst and dissonances, yet Byrd’s song seems to plumb even greater emotional depths with much less effort. The other song by Byrd is If women could be fair  which, like Susanna fair  on B-Five’s album, has clanging contemporary resonances to which the female writer of the sleevenotes alludes wryly. But there is a musical issue as well. All the songs in Byrd’s Psalmes, sonets and songs  of 1588 are printed as partsongs. Most have one part labelled as “the first singing part” from their origins as consort songs. This is one of a small number which have no such indication. Nevertheless it is one among three of these unlabelled songs that Joseph Kerman, in his book The Elizabethan madrigal  suggests, on the basis of its musical structure, was originally a consort song. The putative “first singing part” is obvious and, unlike The Consort of Musicke in the only previous recording, Seldom Sene and Klaartje van Veldhoven take Kerman at his word, and it comes off splendidly. The entire ensemble also perform two fine songs by the able but neglected Nathaniel Patrick (both already recorded on Elizabethan Songs and Consort Songs, Naxos 8554284, by Catherine King with the Rose Consort), the relatively popular Venus’ birds  by John Bennet (not anonymous, pace the sleevenotes) and Weelkes’ less recorded The nightingale. And if there is a feeling of familiarity in encountering the two anonymous warhorses Sweet was the song the Virgin sang  and Farewell the bliss  besides three items from Dowland’s Lachrymae  (all understandable inclusions, after all this is a commercial recording) it is good to welcome two quirky instrumentals in What strikes the clocke, complete with concluding chime, by big brother Edward Gibbons, and Cuckoow as I me walked  by Byrd’s scribe and cheerleader John Baldwin.

Before winding up, what would be the name equivalent to rock’s satirical Spinal Tap for an early music consort? Spinal Chord?

It remains to say that Seldom Sene perform on the full gamut of recorders, from sopranino to sub-contrabass, with judicious scorings in both the consort music and the songs; and that Klaartje van Veldhoven possesses an ideal voice for this repertory. It would be good to hear her on a disc devoted to Byrd, singing a combination of classics and premieres.

Richard Turbet

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Recording

The Topping Tooters of the Town

Music of the London Waits 1580-1650
The City Waits, William Lyons
49:32
Avie AV2364

Improbable as it seems, the title of this CD comes from a 1709 description of the London City Waits, and there is indeed some top tooting here. As the original Waits of the 16th and 17th century would have done, The City Waits play attractive medleys of popular and courtly tunes with enormous skill on a variety of wind instruments including recorders, shawms, dulcians, lysard, hoboy, cornett, sackbut and bagpipes. They have carefully chosen some of the more inventive consort music of the period by Holborne, Adson, Peter Philips, as well as songs by Thomas Morley and psalms by Dowland, Richard Allison, Simon Stubbs and Ravenscroft, for which they are joined by a band of voices who ‘put out’ the psalm tune with period pronunciation before we hear it in harmonised form with instruments and voices. William Lyons’ excellent programme notes paint a vivid picture of the dynamic role played in 16th- and 17th-century musical life by city waits up and down the country, while the CD gives a rich and varied picture of how they might well have sounded in a variety of contexts. My only criticism of this excellent CD is its relative brevity – we could have done with more verses of the psalms, more Valentin Haussman, more Holborne and certainly more of William Lyons’ own imaginative full ensemble arrangements of John Playford. More ‘top tooting’ please!

D. James Ross

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Recording

The Art of the Harpsichord: from Cabezón to Mozart

Byron Schenkman
BSF171

[dropcap]B[/dropcap]yron Schenkman has recorded this significant and highly enjoyable disc on eight instruments from the collection at the National Music Museum in Vermillion, South Dakota. Ranging from a rare anonymous Neapolitan harpsichord of c. 1530 to a 1798 instrument by Joseph Kirckman, the disc covers more than two and a half centuries of the harpsichord’s dominance. Schenkman has made an excellent choice of work to show off each instrument, for the most part eschewing well-known pieces in favour of lesser-known but no less significant ones, which match the chosen instrument extremely well. For example, a Toccata and Passacaglia by the Frescobaldi-influenced Johann Kaspar Kerll, used to illustrate the Giacomo Ridolfi harpsichord of c. 1675, is an inspired choice and Schenkman rises very well to the virtuosic challenges of the extended Passacaglia. The same applies to Gregorio Strozzi’s trill-laden Passacaglia which is played on an octave virginal by Onofrio Guarracino. A spinet by Johann Heinrich Silbermann is put through its paces in a rare piece by Silbermann himself, as well as in a sonata by C.P.E. Bach. It is good to hear three Scarlatti sonatas played on a resonant Portuguese harpsichord by José Callisto, with a particularly exciting rendition of K 427. Schenkman is a versatile player who seems equally at home in this great variety of styles, no small ask in a repertory that ranges from Cabezón to Mozart. Only the Haydn Sonata in D (Hob XVI:24), played on the Kirckman, feels a bit uncomfortable in its overly-fast second and third movements. The disc is accompanied by some excellent notes on the instruments, written by John Koster; there is, however, little information on the actual music which is a pity. In the breadth of its programme, and with some exciting playing, this CD makes an excellent introduction to the harpsichord and its repertory. It also showcases some wonderful historical instruments kept in peak playing condition.

Noel O’Regan

Categories
Recording

Ludford: Missa Dominica

Trinity Boys Choir, Handbell Choir Gotha, Lewis Brito-Babapulle, David Swinson
79:21
Rondeau Horizon ROP8001

[dropcap]T[dropcap]his CD provides a window on a neglected area of repertoire, the generally small-scale settings by Renaissance composers of the extended ordinary for Ladymass. While the excellent Nicholas Ludford has never quite regained the reputation he deserves as an outstanding and highly original Renaissance English composer, at least his larger-scale mass settings have all been recorded several times. The same cannot be said of his three-part settings of the Ladymass, one of which is recorded here for the first time. Presenting the music in two different guises, for unaccompanied choral voices, and for solo voices accompanied by organ, both of which work very well, is an excellent concept. The handbells, something of an add-on in this programme, supply two accounts of the Square Le Roy, as well as joining the boys in one of the later modern works. Although much of the singing is pleasantly lyrical, there is occasional downward pressure on the intonation. Having said that, the clear tone of the boys’ voices blends beautifully with Ludford’s imaginative writing for them, suggesting that these settings are well worth further exploration. In addition to the Mass, the choir provides lovely performances of the medieval carols Ther is no Rose of Swych Vertu  and Angelus ad Virginem  (with some curious choices of hard and soft consonants) as well as two modern pieces. The Trinity Boys Choir are to be congratulated for tackling this neglected and technically demanding music, and this CD very usefully provides a window on an important part of Ludford’s output and a generally overlooked body of early polyphony.4555

D. James Ross

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Recording

A pleasing melancholy

Cheyls Consort of Viols, Emma Kirkby soprano, James Akers lute
72:13
BIS-2283 SACD

[dropcap]L[/dropcap]ike Mary Berry or Judi Dench,  Emma Kirkby has become something of a national treasure, and it is wonderful to hear her in fine voice for these songs by Dowland, Tobias Hume, Robert Jones, John Danyell, and Anthony Holborne. Soon to be celebrating her 70th birthday, she brings a lifetime of early music performance experience to this haunting music. While youthful freshness has been replaced with a more mature vocal quality, she has chosen her repertoire wisely and these readings are technically sound but – more importantly – resonant with wisdom. Filled with memories of Emma Kirkby’s rich and varied career, I found these accounts deeply moving and, indeed, almost unbearably poignant. James Akers provides a beautifully sympathetic lute accompaniment to the voice, while also blending elegantly into the consort. The viols, too, are wonderfully responsive, both as accompanists in the songs and also to one another in the accounts of the Lachrimae Pavans  and the other consort music. This CD is a must for all the many loyal Kirkby fans.

D. James Ross

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Recording

The ears of the Huguenots

Huelgas Ensemble, Paul Van Nevel
65:09
deutsche harmonia mundi 88985411762
Music by Animuccia, Costeley, de L’Estocart, Goudimel, Le Jeune, Mauduit, Palestrina, Servin & anon

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he unexpectedly varied music of the early Protestant church and home is presented beautifully here by the voices and strings of the Huelgas Ensemble. The CD opens with plain but harmonically imaginative four-part psalm settings by Jacques Mauduit and Claude Goudimel. Inventively varying the performance medium between various permutations of voices and strings, as would have undoubtedly been the case in the mainly domestic performances of this music at the time, the ensemble capture perfectly its dignified elegance and understated nobility. Goudimel was one of many Huguenots who perished in the St Bartholomew’s Day Massacres of 1572, and tellingly this CD includes a section of music eligible to have been performed in Rome on receipt of the ‘good news’ of the Massacres. This militantly counter-reformation repertoire features a curious anonymous 16th-century lauda  and music by Giovanni Animuccia and Palestrina, the Agnus Dei from whose Messa ‘Ut re mi fa sol la’  is perhaps an oddly placatory choice given the circumstances. The third and most interesting section of the programme explores the slightly later and more adventurous music by some mainly Huguenot ‘big hitters’ – Paschal de L’Estocart, Claude le Jeune and the until recently almost completely overlooked Jean Servin. Setting text from the rhyming Latin Psalter by Scottish intellectual George Buchanan, Servin’s eight-part Stellata coeli  is one of several masterpieces the composer produced in a volume presented to James VI, King of Scots. In one of the great what-ifs of musical history, due to circumstances, this type of opulent Protestant polyphony failed to take root at this time, although we can perhaps hear faint pre-echoes of Schütz here. By some way, this is the most interesting music on the CD, and it is a shame that a second Servin piece promised by the programme notes seems to have ended up on the cutting-room floor. On reflection it would have been more interesting to have cut the rather gratuitous counter-reformation section and to have included more Servin – but perhaps the ensemble will return to the sizeable and idiosyncratic Servin legacy in the future.

D. James Ross

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Recording

L’arte del Madrigale

Voces Suaves
62:36
Ambronay AMY308
Agostini, Gesualdo, Luzzaschi, Monteverdi, de Wert

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his comprehensive tour of the Italian madrigal world includes the composers listed in the title as well as several more, including a Gonzaga Duke! The group are well named as they have a delightfully suave tone and blend which are very easy on the ear, and provide delicate accounts of the madrigals. Just occasionally I felt that we lost some of the detail in the more rapidly interactive episodes, but these are performances which are never less that sensitive and expressive, and in their presentation of both familiar and unfamiliar material they provide a very broad introduction to the development of this distinctive and important musical form. In the highly decorated lines of a Luzzaschi madrigal the detail of the articulation is definitely sacrificed for the overall sense of line, but the ensemble has an uncanny ability to spectacularly ‘warm up’ the tone for appropriate passages while the sound of the full eight-voice texture, as in Gastoldi’s Cantiam lieti, is magnificent.

D. James Ross

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Recording

Girolamo Cavazzoni: Complete Organ Works

Ivana Valotti
146:38 (2 CDs in a single jewel case)
Tactus TC 510391

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his complete account of the organ works of Cavazzoni features the magnificent 1565 organ ‘in Cornu Epistolae’ by Graziadio Antegnati in the Basilica palatina di Santa Barbara in Mantua expertly played by Ivana Valotti. The instrument is perfect in period for Cavazzoni’s music, but also in character and variety of stops. The mechanism is understandably audible but almost never to the detriment of the music, and the clarity of the various stops attests to diligent upkeep over the centuries. I have been mainly aware of Cavazzoni’s keyboard music as providing useful instrumental interludes in programmes of choral music by composers contemporary with the Gabrielis, but hearing this comprehensive collection of a bewildering variety of musical forms so authoritatively played on this magnificent Renaissance instrument made me aware that Cavazzoni’s music stands up very well in its own right. More harmonically adventurous than many of the organ music composers in the second half of the sixteenth century, Cavazzoni displays a ready imagination well beyond the technically showy but ultimately rather conservative music of his contemporaries. Where needed plainchant incipits and ‘links’ are provided by Gianluca Ferrabini, and I felt just occasionally that it might have been worth engaging a small capella for the tutti chant sections. These are CDs to dip into at random to enjoy the wonderful aural palette of the Antegnati organ, the sensitive playing of Ms. Valotti and Cavazzoni’s creative response to a delightful range of musical forms.

D. James Ross

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Categories
Recording

Philippe Verdelot / Sylvestro Ganassi: Madrigali diminuiti

Doulce Mémoire, Denis Raisin Dadre
67:20
Ricercar RIC371

[dropcap]I[/dropcap]n my apprenticeship as a recorder player, I invested in a copy of Ganassi’s manual on ornamentation, Fontegara, and still remember my astonishment at the diversity and freedom of decorations he suggested including trills on a third and fourth, scalic divisions of startling variety and sheer flights of fancy. I felt then and feel now that early musicians have chosen very selectively from this and other manuals to create an ornamentation orthodoxy, which simply didn’t exist in the 16th century. Fascinating then to have this CD presenting vocal accounts by Clara Coutouly of madrigals by Verdelot followed by diminutions after Ganassi, played on the recorder by Denis Raisin Dadre. Sympathetically accompanied by lute, harp and spinet/clavicytherium Coutouly gives markedly straight-laced but beautiful accounts of Verdelot’s imaginative music, contrasting effectively with Dadre’s technical fireworks. In a couple of the madrigals both soloists perform simultaneously, Coutouly singing ‘straight’ and Dadre ornamenting the same line, an approach which sounds as if it may result in chaos but which works surprisingly well. I was disappointed to hear no exotic trills at any point, suggesting a slightly conservative approach even today by the present performers – I can remember as a student raising a few eyebrows at concerts with unorthodox recorder trills ‘alla Ganassi’, and I made sure to have a page reference at hand for any critics. Notwithstanding this, the present performances are highly engaging and sound very natural and believable.

D. James Ross

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