Tag: Choral music

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Stölzel: Ein Lämmlein geht

Veronika Winter, Franz Vitzthum, Markus Brutscher, Martin Schicketanz SATB, Rheinische Kantorei, Das Kleine Konzert, Hermann Max
110:28 (2 CDs in a box)
cpo 555 311-2

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This recording was made in the Thomaskirche in Leipzig during the 2019 Bachfest, with support from other bodies primarily interested in Bach’s music. Indeed, most of the booklet note (which is shorter in length than the combined biographies of the performers!) is devoted not to Stölzel at all, but to Bach.

Stölzel’s passion oratorio takes a different approach than Bach’s own works for Easter. The story is told mostly in groups of three movements as if in real time, with a recitative featuring the narrator using the present tense and then the soloists reflecting on what they’ve heard first in more recitative, then an aria, followed by a chorale setting sung by everyone. There are 18 arias, one duet and two choruses. Stölzel was essentially a miniaturist; each aria is based on a single idea – most of them earworms, since the man had an unerring gift for getting under one’s musical skin (think “Bist du bei mir” and how difficult that is to shake off!) The one thing missing from this work is counterpoint; with no monumental structural choruses, there is no need for them – anyone who doubt’s Stölzel’s ability in the field need merely look through any of the hundreds of surviving cantatas and masses. If only one of his glorious works for Easter Sunday had been tagged on to the end of this recording – it would have transformed it!

Hermann Max paces the piece well and draws fine performances from his soloists, choir and orchestra alike. That said, György Vashegyi with his Hungarian soloists, Purcell Choir and Orfeo Orchestra put a little more energy into their performance on Glossa.

Brian Clark

 

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Sacred Treasures of Christmas

CD cover Sacred treasures of Christmas

The London Oratory Schola Cantorum, Charles Cole
76:30
Hyperion CDA 68358

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This CD is part of a series recording the liturgical music of the various seasons as presented in the round of services in the London Oratory. St Augustine’s Church Kilburn provides just about the ideal acoustic for recording this lavish Christmas music, providing a pleasing bloom but also allowing us to hear the necessary detail. The choral music comes from throughout Europe and the composers represented include Sweelinck, Giovanni Gabrieli, Hassler, Mouton, Scheidt, Guerrero, Victoria, Palestrina, Lassus, Sheppard, Nanino and Tallis, while the choristers also sing some plainchant with the authority of familiarity. In fact the music covers the celebrations of Christmas, Epiphany and Candlemas, and ranges in mood from the overtly showy to the deeply contemplative. The singers capture the full range of moods in their chosen music, and the director Charles Cole does a superb job in marshalling his large choral forces to produce a sound which can be focussed and intimate, as well as wonderfully opulent. I think there is something profoundly different about a ‘working’ church choir from the small specialist ensembles who also perform this sort of repertoire, not just in their use of boys’ voices and their sheer numbers, but in their approach to the music. This is repertoire they sing every day of their lives as a vital element of church services, and they derive an unparalleled authority as a result. This is a thoroughly enjoyable recording which captures perfectly the joys of the festive season.

D. James Ross

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I Diporti della villa in ogni stagione 1601

CD cover I diporti della villa Venezia 1601

Gruppo vocali Àrsi & Tèsi, Tony Corradini
65:06
Tactus TC 590005

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The madrigal collection ‘The pastimes of the Villa in each season’ published in Venice in 1601 consists of settings by eminent composers of the day, some better remembered than others – Giovanni Croce, Lelio Bertani, Ippolito Baccusi and Filippo de Monte – of verses by the aristocrat Francesco Bozza. Each composer takes a complete season, treated in five parts and interestingly each referred to in the dedication as a single song. The parallels with the almost exactly contemporary ‘Triumphs of Oriana’ are interesting and point at an urge towards the encyclopaedic at the time. The balance of the music on the CD is made up with sundry other madrigals which mention the seasons by the familiar Nanino, Marenzio, de Lasso and Schütz, and the rather more obscure and interesting Rinaldo del Mel and Mogens Pederson. The quality of the madrigals in the collection as well as the added material is high, and they are beautifully sung by the vocal ensemble. This could well have been just an aristocratic vanity project, but the fact that the composers clearly liaised, not to say competed, with one another ensured a consistently high compositional standard. The structure of the publication and its title makes it very clear that it was viewed as a single large four-part work, and was intended to be performed in its entirety, as it is here. The astute choice of complementary material makes this CD thoroughly engaging and entertaining, while the expressive and technically flawless performances ensure that the attention never wanders.

D. James Ross

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See, see, the word is incarnate

CD cover See, see, the word is incarnate

Choral and instrumental music by Gibbons, Tomkins and Weelkes
The Chapel of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, Newe Vialles, Orpheus Britannicus Vocal Consort, Andrew Arthur
70:51
resonus RES10295

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Despite a long and distinguished history, Trinity Hall, founded as early as 1350, is one of the lesser-known colleges that make up the University of Cambridge. It must be tired of reviewers and others attributing this to the subsequent foundation in 1546 of the bigger and wealthier Trinity College, allegedly given so similar a name deliberately by its founder Henry VIII to spite Trinity Hall’s then Master, Stephen Gardiner, who had opposed the king’s marriage to Anne Boleyn. I was well aware of Trinity Hall but am mortified to confess that I knew nothing of its chapel, nor of its chapel choir and its several discs released before the one currently under review here. On the basis of this recording, the state of its music is certainly of a piece with the college’s eminent stature. The mixed Chapel Choir has 23 members (7S 6A 5T 5B) and verses are sung by members of Orpheus Britannicus, the Ensemble in Residence which consists of seven singers who are well kent in early music circles. Accompaniments are provided by the organ scholar James Grimwood or the five-strong consort Newe Vialles (named after the new group of six viol players brought from Italy to England by Henry VIII), while the several organ solos are played by the college’s Director of Music, Andrew Arthur, who also conducts.

The contents of this recording (similar in scope to I Heard a Voice by The Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, and Fretwork, Warner Classics 3944302, 2007) can be viewed from two perspectives. For those who do not routinely sing or hear late Tudor and Jacobean music, it consists of some of the finest music from before the time of Purcell. For those who routinely hear or perform the repertory of Tudor and Jacobean music, the list of contents would seem to consist of disappointingly familiar fare – even the instrumental items by Weelkes, the least populated area of his output, have had their fair sprinkling of recordings. That said, most commercial recordings require the mystical “USP”, the unique selling point that differentiates them from others in the field. Not too many discs can be expected to sell simply on the strength of the performers: probably a CD of Stile Antico gargling would sell by the bucketload, but choirs such as Trinity Hall need that elusive USP. Fortunately it is present on this disc, and it is the tempi at which most of these works are sung: slowly. This might seem unpromising, but works such as Gibbons’ Short Service were not composed to be sung at the dismissively hurried lick which too many conductors take during cathedral or collegiate Choral Evensongs and on commercial recordings: the writing is full of subtleties which are lost at speed. That said, just plain slow performances can be sluggish, but it is entirely possible to sing a piece slowly yet with care and momentum so as to bring out its harmonic, melodic and technical beauties, and this is precisely what Trinity Hall achieve both in the settings for evensong, and in the full and verse anthems. For instance, the ultra-famous This is the record of John normally comes in at just over four minutes, while here it takes a luxurious 5’06; similarly See, see the word is incarnate usually runs for around seven minutes while here it is given 8’14. And nowhere throughout the disc is there a dull moment, half because of the quality of the music and half because of the leisured intensity of the performances.

The booklet is good, being both informative and well illustrated. Unfortunately the author trots out the tired old fiction that viols might have been employed “in the Chapel Royal and other private chapels”. There is not a shred of surviving evidence that any such performances ever took place during the lifetimes of the composers represented here. Where liturgical verse anthems with accompaniments for the organ survive with authentic alternative accompaniments for viols, it is clear from the provenances of the respective sources that the latter were intended for domestic performance; it is, therefore, perhaps all the more authentic for these versions to be sung with female participation.

And finally, what of the performances here? They are consistently good. There is a richness about the tone of the choir which suggests a Baroque sensibility rather than the more austere Anglican approach which is often adopted for the music of these composers. Thanks to the slower tempi, individual parts are easily audible while the voices blend beautifully. This is a most impressive recording. For potential purchasers unfamiliar with the repertory but keen to give it a hearing (or just keen to support Trinity Hall), it is a delightful introduction. For those familiar with this music, and who possess recordings of all these pieces, it is well worth buying this disc for the singularly ripe yet penetrating performances.

Richard Turbet

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Giovanni Gabrieli: Gloria a Venezia!

CD cover Giovanni Gabrieli Gloria a Venezia

La Guilde des Mercenaires, Adrien Mabire
53:47
Château de Versailles Spectacles CVS041

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Grand scale pieces by Giovanni Gabrieli and contemporaries are often given a rather ponderous grandeur in performance. This disc offers a different  balance, instead maintaining a sense of energy and forward momentum. The overlapping choirs pass the baton without breaking pace, adding a fervent muscularity to this popular repertoire. Whilst this provides a welcome new light on many familiar pieces, applied relentlessly it can occasionally feel rather breathless, and misses opportunities for the music to put down the occasional foot and make a point. An example might be Angelus ad pastores ait, in which the exchange between the narrative voice represented by one choir passing over to the reported speech of the Angel in the other, without feeling the opening and closing speech marks. The pieces regularly change scale to give contrast. Thus we move from the opening Magnificat by Merulo with its full panoply of voices, cornetts and sackbuts, to Gabrieli’s canzon terza a 4, performed on solo cornett with organ. The contrast between the Merulo, with colla parte instruments, unusually including the top voice with a slightly tiring effect, and the following canzon, was a touch severe particularly as this piece for four instruments is constructed as sets of dialogues and calls out for distinct “voices”. Two other four-part canzoni leaven the programme further on: one with four instruments, and one more with cornett and organ. Ordering the realisations differently would have been easier on my ear (but, admittedly, this is just personal taste). The organ used has a splendid sonority – a noticeable step towards the historic cathedral organs from the smaller organs often used in modern performance – and is very fluently played. The organ ricercar, which makes a later appearance, has a real presence and immediacy. The singers are excellent and carry conviction, blending very well with each other and with the well-shaped instrumental playing. A fine addition to the CD collections of admirers of La Serenissima.

Stephen Cassidy

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Hammerschmidt: Ach Jesus stirbt

CD cover Hammerschmidt Ach Jesus stirbt Vox Luminis Lionel Meunier

Vox Luminis, Lionel Meunier
70:27
Ricercar RIC418

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A key figure in the mid-17th-century German world is Andreas Hammerschmidt (1611/2-1675) who was fluent in the emerging cantata style and equally at home in monody or the madrigalesque style of Italy. His sacred works were published over 15 volumes printed between 1639 and 1671 and combine polychoral motets with solo and dialogue pieces, many using thematic material derived from chorales. In some ways overshadowed by his better-known contemporary Schütz, he was among the creators of the sound world of Lutheran church music in which the contributors to the Altbachisches Archiv and ultimately Johann Sebastian Bach himself were formed. A lot of attention has been paid to Schütz and Schein, and to Buxtehude in the north, while Hammerschmidt is unjustly – on the basis of this fine recording – neglected.

Partly to remedy this, Vox Luminis – here using 13 singers – recorded this selection of his works in 2019, using the substantial organ by Dominique Thomas of 2002 in the north transept of the church of Notre-Dame at Gedinne in Belgium, where in 2017 they had recorded motets by Schein and Ahle for inclusion in an interesting CD devised by the remarkable Breton bassoonist, Jérémie Papasergio. The Hammerschmidt programme is structured around texts for Passiontide and Easter, beginning with the elegiac motet Ach Jesus stirbt, which is the title given to the whole CD. They work with the string group CLEMATIS, (2 violins, 2 violas and violone) and brass (2 trumpets, 3 trombones and bassoon), although the majority of pieces have just basso continuo with the voices.

Vox Luminis are at the heart of their comfort zone with this colourful and often surprisingly adventurous music. The balance, clarity and diction for which the group is justly celebrated are all in evidence in these subtle and well-paced performances. This is an important introduction to Hammerschmidt’s unique voice, but it is also a quite excellent performance of gripping music.

I like it a lot, and it offers far more than just filling another gap in the complex jigsaw of 17th-century Germany, where cross currents between national styles, composers’ opportunities to travel and the myriad small courts with their musical establishments was all part of creating an emerging late Baroque synthesis. Each performance is beautiful and moving in itself, but the cumulative effect is distinctive and compelling.

Some motets are in more in the old cori spezzati style; others employ echo effects, like Siehe, wie fein und lieblich ists in three choirs. In a newer and more obviously modern style, Ach Gott, warum hast du mein vergessen has four character voices, beginning with Ps 22.1 and ending with Alleluias, so taking us from the cross to the empty tomb. Its companion piece is Wer wälzet uns der Stein, where a pair of sopranos ask the question ‘Who will roll away the stone?’ A pair of violins dialogue with them, while violas and violone shadow the lower voices and a bright organ sound adds to the outburst of Easter joy. Restrained and sung by just four voices with continuo is O barmherziger Vater, while Christ lag in Todesbanden makes polyphony out of the chorale, setting it for two trebles and a tenor with three trombones and continuo. Easter is celebrated in a less antique Lutheran style in Triumph, Triumph, Victoria, which has upper voices in pairs – two sopranos, two tenors and then a different pair of sopranos – for the verses with two trumpets and three trombones with the tutti. For Ascension Day we have a motet based on upward scale passages that cumulates in tuttis capped by three trumpets. Very different is Vater unser, with four favoriti, a five-part string group and a capella of five voices joining for the tutti, and the poignant words Ist nicht Ephraim mein theurer Sohn, set memorably by Schütz, receives a haunting performance with just five voices.

As so often with Vox Luminis, the performances seem just right: no individualistic voices unbalance the perfect restraint, yet the outbursts of Easter joy are life enhancing. The choice of music not only illustrates the multiple styles to be found in Hammerschmidt, but shows how rich was the melting pot of middle Europe in these mid-17th-century years. This is an important CD, and no one should be without it.

David Stancliffe

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Bach: Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis, Herz und Mund…

CD cover of Bach Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis Rademann

Núria Rial, Wiebke Lehnkuhl, Benedikt Kristjánsson, Matthias Winckhler, Gaechinger Cantorey, Hans-Christoph Rademann
65:54
Carus 83.522

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These two substantial cantatas are as good an introduction to Bach cantatas as you are likely to get, and they are presented in this CD published by Carus Verlag as an up-to-the-moment take on how to do the cantatas.

The pair is well-chosen: both are the results of the routine into which Bach’s new appointment at Leipzig threw him, and show the composer adapting compositions from the Weimar period to novel contexts. Both are substantial works in two parts. Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis (BWV 21) was probably originally composed as a test piece for a post in Halle in 1713, from which Bach later withdrew. He used it for the 3rd Sunday after Trinity in 1714, again for a trial in Hamburg in 1720 in D minor, presumably in Cammerton, and it was included in the first cantata cycle of 1723 on June 13th, reworked for C in – presumably – Cammerton. The original key in Weimar seems to have been C at Chorton, and by 1723 in Leipzig it was back in C, but at Cammerton, with four colla parte trombones in movement ix. It has everything: the division of the singers into soli and tutti, an opening sinfonia with a solo oboe, a soprano/bass duet between the soul and the vox Christi, illustrative writing, a recitative accompanied by two oboes da caccia, and a blazing finale with a choir of trumpets – a veritable showcase of styles and techniques.

Only a few weeks later Leipzig heard BWV 147, Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, which was written originally for the fourth Sunday of Advent 1716 in Weimar, of which nothing survives except the opening chorus. For its re-use for the feast of the Visitation, 2nd July 1723, Bach retained Salomo Franck’s arias but composed three recitatives incorporating Marian allusions and the celebrated extended setting of the chorale we know as Jesu, joy of man’s desiring, repeated at the end of both parts. This extended chorale setting, where the lilting 9/8 melodic material of the ritornelli is derived from the chorale itself, is the first of such extended settings of final chorales which provide occasional, more elaborate alternatives to the plain four-part setting. Was it Dame Myra Hess, frequently playing a transcription for piano in her war-time concerts, who so popularised it among English speakers?

In general, the performances are fine: the tempi are good, the text is clear and the playing of a high quality, with 4.4.3.2.1 strings plus oboes, trumpets and a quartet of trombones. But there are two caveats: first, I found the tone of this harpsichord brittle and at times over-obtrusive; no details are given of any of the instruments played, and either the harpsichord was recorded too closely or the instrument was too jangly. Secondly and more importantly, Rademann persists in using a quartet of ‘soloists’ who take no further part in those chorus numbers in which they led off with the parts marked ‘solo’ once the parts are marked ‘tutti’ and doubled by instruments. Even if Rademann – like most German conductors – refuses to accept that these cantatas were sung with one voice to a part, plus ripieno singers on occasions, surely he must recognise that to start a chorus with single soloistic voices and then to silence them when tutti is marked in the score is nonsense. Some of solo voices – Nuria Rial and Benedikt Kristjánsson – would blend with other singers perfectly well, others – and particularly the contralto, Wiebke Lehmkuhl – would not. Her voice – rich and dark though it is – is peculiarly unsuited to Bach. This exposes the dilemma for conductors: if you can’t follow the logic of the scholarship as well as the musical plusses that says “Bach’s primary group of singers – the Concertisten – sing everything: add to them some ripienists if you like in choruses unless it specifically says ‘solo’’, then either choose soloists who will not stand out in the tutti like a sore thumb and make them sing everything, or get single voices from your ‘choir’ to do the incipits if you want different ‘soloists’ to sing the recits and arias.” But both on the grounds of scholarship and plain musicality, Rademann’s solution simply does not work.

This fairly major cavil apart, this would be a good CD to give someone who has no idea what a Bach Cantata is, and needs an introduction; but it will help perpetuate a now rather dated style of performance in which vocal timbres and ensemble skills have not kept pace with the strides taken in the past fifty years by wonderful period instrumental players.

David Stancliffe

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Regnart: Missa Christ Ist Erstanden

CD cover Regnart Missa Christ ist erstanden hyperion

Cinquecento Renaissance Vokal
64:45
hyperion CDA68369

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Having been poleaxed by the way Cinquecento’s excellent singing complemented the excellence of Isaac’s music on their previous release but having been less impressed by their previous disc of Regnart (2007), I approached this recording with circumspection. None required. Like the former, it is another superb recording of revelatory music. Regnart’s praises were being sung over four hundred years ago by none other than Lassus. Like the rest of us, the greatest creative artists can reveal lousy taste, or speak up for an untalented friend, or favour someone inferior to make themselves seem even better, but Lassus, about ten years Regnart’s senior, was bang on the money when he came to recommending him for advancement.

The two masses that take up most of this programme are best heard after the little hymn tunes on which they are based. In both cases, Regnart’s varied treatment of the tunes within his masses makes for two outstanding compositions; listening to them is spiritually rewarding and an aesthetic pleasure. This is well exemplified in the Gloria of Missa Christ ist erstanden. There is some fine sequential writing approaching the movement’s first close at “Patris”, followed by a well-judged slowing of tempo to a sumptuous cadence on “miserere nostri”, and an extended Amen brings the movement to a close with another gorgeous cadence. There are fine moments in other movements, with an excellent passage for three of the five voices in the Credo at “et iterum …”, and another striking cadence in the Sanctus at “tua”. Missa Freu dich is no less distinguished. The Credo is notable for some animated syncopation in the “Crucifixus” section, with further rhythmic vitality approaching the end of the movement. The Sanctus ends with a climactically high note on the last word “tua” for the countertenor. Perhaps most to be relished is the Agnus, with exciting dissonance at “peccata mundi” and a lovely cadence on “nostri”, repeated, to round off the entire disc, on “pacem”.

The three fillers are well chosen. Maria fein, du klarer Schein is a beautiful sacred song in five parts, while the other two works are later contrafacta of what were originally “light Italian love songs” according to the excellent notes by Erika Supria Honisch. She informs us that Ruhmbt alle Werck was originally “Vorrei saper da voi”. For those who are interested, the original of Wann ich nur dich hab was “Tutto lo giorno”, 1574.

This is a disc of glorious polyphony, especially memorable for its undulating phrases, sung superbly by Cinquecento, with not only a feeling of bracing air between the individual parts, but also, where appropriate, concentrated warmth during deeper sonorities.

Richard Turbet

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In Umbra Mortis

CD cover In Umbra Mortis A chromatic journey Cappella Amsterdam

Cappella Amsterdam, Daniel Reuss
Rihm – De Wert
57:32
Pentatone PTC 5186 948

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This programme alternates music by the contemporary German composer Wolfgang Rihm (b.1952) with that of the Renaissance master Giaches de Wert (1535-96). As the programme note observes, the music is ‘intertwined’, as we pass rapidly from early to contemporary music, inviting direct comparison. The choice of composers is inspired – Rihm’s idiom is firmly rooted in the Renaissance, while Wert’s seems to exhibit a prescience of modern harmonies. Rihm’s music is his Sieben Passions-Texte (2001-6), a considerable masterpiece, powerfully sung here by an ensemble of 24 voices. With a choir of this size, one of the main issues is blend, and this is achieved with an astonishing consistency here. The added power of the relatively large number of voices is palpable, and it is interesting that while the overlap in personnel with the smaller ensemble who sing the de Wert is considerable, the latter is not simply an offshoot of the former. The five- and six-part motets by de Wert, also penitential in mood, demonstrate his daring use of chromaticism and consummate mastery of structure. Such juxtapositions of repertoire are not always successful, but this one has been so carefully considered and superbly executed that both repertoires benefit from the encounter. I have one tiny reservation – there is a degree of background ‘clomping’, which may annoy some listeners. I found it distracting to start with, but soon forgot it in my enjoyment of this remarkable music.

D. James Ross

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Fayrfax: Music for Tudor Kings & Queens

CD Cover Fayrfax Music for Tudor Kings and Queens Ensemble Pro Victoria

Ensemble Pro Victoria
67:07
Delphian DCD34265

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Oh hooray! Somebody is commemorating the quincentenary of the death of Robert Fayrfax, one of England’s, and the world’s, great composers. Nobody begrudges the attention lavished upon Josquin Despres, the quincentenary of whose passing also falls this year, but Fayrfax is likewise a musical colossus, and these two men are more than equipped to be named together in the same sentence. Although nearly all the pieces on this disc have been recorded before, the selection of material makes for a fascinating programme, and it benefits from being performed by one of Britain’s finest young vocal ensembles, who in turn are supported by musical scholarship of the highest order, led by Magnus Williamson.

The said programme consists of all seven secular songs by Fayrfax which survive intact, one for two voices, the rest for three; three relatively well-known Latin works – Magnificat Regale, Salve regina and Maria plena virtute; and two more Latin works which have required heavy reconstruction – Ave lumen gratiae and the Credo from the Missa Sponsus amat sponsam. This last-mentioned work is the only premiere recording on the disc. (A different edition of the first half of Ave lumen appears on ASV CD GAU 160 sung by The Cardinall’s Musick. Strangely, although a reconstruction of the second half of the motet is sung on the present disc, only the text of the first half is provided in the booklet.) The mass survives in a seriously fragmentary state, spread around several sources, one of which is a lutebook. With major surgery, all the movements have been rendered in a performable, if necessarily provisional, condition edited by Roger Bray, and are available as such from Stainer and Bell. Seemingly the Credo is “the least incomplete movement” (email from Magnus Williamson to the reviewer) and so this was chosen to give some indication of what this intriguing and significant mass might have sounded like in contemporary performances both formal and domestic. Magnus explains in the booklet how he has built upon the initial work of Roger Bray to provide the form of the movement sung and played here. His perceptive and convincing theory about the origin and subsequent history of the mass is also set forth.

The programme is well constructed. This is the first commercial disc to include all of Fayrfax’s surviving songs, which are interspersed among the longer Latin works throughout the recording, which is topped and tailed by two of his finest and best-known liturgical pieces. The Mary antiphon Maria plena virtute concludes the record, one of the most impressive works in the entire Tudor repertory and one that sounds advanced for its time; it is not surprising that in one source it is attributed to Taverner. Probably it is one of Fayrfax’s latest works, composed after he had entered royal service in 1504. Beginning the disc is the Magnificat Regale, among his most recorded works and one of the three works by Fayrfax that survive from the Eton Choirbook. Originally there were six of his works in this magnificent manuscript, but three have been lost altogether; the Magnificat has also been lost from the Choirbook but survives intact elsewhere, Ave lumen gratiae has required the comprehensive reconstructive attention mentioned above, and only Salve regina survives intact in the Choirbook itself. The fact that all three surviving works are included on this disc is another instance of a group of linked works being included on this same record for the first time. The programme is completed by the Credo from the Missa Sponsus amat sponsam which was also mentioned above.

The members of Ensemble Pro Victoria (EPV) patently have their own clear overall concept of Fayrfax’s music. Their sound is radically different from that of The Cardinall’s Musick (TCM) who have recorded – sublimely – nearly all these pieces. EPV sound grainier, with individual voices exhibiting more vibrato except in some extended full passages during the longer Latin liturgical pieces. That said, the Credo sounds almost as though it is barked in certain places. The classic song Sumwhat musyng provides a concise illustration of their different stylistic approach from that of TCM, EPV’S fraught delivery conveying an emotional depth on a par with TCM’s introverted contemplation. One could say that where their repertories coincide, TCM’s interpretations tend to be otherworldly, while those of EPV are of this world. The standard of singing in both cases is very high, and individual preference among listeners might come down to a greater liking either for the ethereal or for the earthly (or even at times earthy). But Fayrfax’s works are great and marvellous enough to withstand varied interpretations, so owners of some or all of TCM’s five Fayrfax discs (Gaudeamus CD GAU 142, 145, 160, 184, 185) could well find EPV’s different approach to Fayrfax rewarding, besides the presence of one and a half Latin works not recorded by TCM. The measured intensity of The Cardinall’s Musick might just suit this music slightly better, but the Ensemble Pro Victoria plough their own furrow with a passionate engagement that does no great disservice whatsoever to Fayrfax’s transcendent music.

Richard Turbet