Tag: Choral music

The Choir of York Minster, directed by Robert Sharpe, Benjamin Morris organ
74:22
Regent REGCD544

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I gave the first disc in this series, recorded during 2016, a favourable review in EMR dated 27 May 2017, tipping my hat in conclusion to the excellent notes provided by John Lees. This time I am commencing with a short paean to John for another fine commentary on the background to, and contents of, a second superb disc. He is entirely accurate and up to date regarding current musical research on the period, yet is circumspect when contemporary documentation is in short supply, as in the case of Tomkins having been Byrd’s pupil. Meanwhile this is all expressed in a style that is reassuringly scholarly and a pleasure to read, something to which those of us who write about music can all aspire.

As it was in the case of the first disc, the high quality of the booklet notes and the music itself and the performance of the music all complement one another. If Tallis and particularly Byrd did best numerically on that outstanding initial disc, with one or two items emerging from “left field”, then it is the young guns Tomkins and particularly Gibbons who do well on this second offering. Yet while it is Gibbons who scores highest with six items, it is Tomkins who emerges with the only actual premiere on the disc: his beautiful verse anthem Praise the Lord O my soul is new to CD, having previously appeared only on a fine LP, never reissued, by Newport Cathedral Choir in 1983 (Alpha APS 343). That said, works such as his powerful full anthem in eight parts O God the proud are risen and a couple of Gibbons’s verse anthems Behold I bring you glad tidings and We praise thee O Father are quite elusive. One of the less familiar Tudor evening services, William Mundy’s In medio chori, was included on the first disc, and another such is selected here, the Latin setting by Tallis. Disc I began and ended with two of Byrd’s greatest Latin works, and the Latin pattern is followed here, with Robert Parsons’ sublime Ave Maria opening the proceedings, and another of Byrd’s masterpieces Peccantem me quotidie bringing them to a conclusion.

The quality of the singing is every bit on a par with that on the preceding disc. Only listen to the exquisite layering in the final chord of Byrd’s Sing joyfully – quite the best unaccompanied ending to this anthem on disc (there is currently a stirring version by Musica Secreta accompanied fittingly by The English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble on Chandos CHAN 0789) – in which it is so easy for inner parts to be swamped as everyone exhales on the conclusion of Byrd’s short sharp test of vocal endurance; and to the impact of the trebles’ thrilling entry at “O spare me a little” in Gibbons’s Behold thou hast made my days. Meanwhile the full choir can sing with the intimacy that Byrd would have anticipated in performances of Justorum animae whether domestic (it was published in book 1 of Gradualia 1605 and the volume was approved by Richard Bancroft, then Bishop of London) or clandestine (during illegal Roman Catholic masses). Robert Sharp unerringly chooses tempi appropriate to the individual pieces and to the acoustic of the recording venue, while Benjamin Morris’s accompaniments are sensitive and tasteful. Compared with the previous disc, the Choir itself, recorded during 2019, sounds different, as one would expect three years onwards, and the acoustic seems less reverberant – it is stated simply that disc I was “recorded in York Minster” (perhaps the chancel?) whereas disc II is said to have been recorded in the Lady Chapel. The Choir, who can not only blend mellifluously but also project individual parts where necessary, is a credit not only to York Minster but to the Church of England, while the verse passages are sung responsively by soloists, each with characterful voices not drilled to a uniform sound, who are in turn a credit to the Choir. Everything about this disc is distinguished, and it cannot be praised too highly.

Richard Turbet

Cinquecento Renaissance Vokal
hyperion CDA68337
78:03

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In any history of music, or any listing of the greatest composers of a particular time, certain names can be expected always to turn up. Alongside Josquin, there is usually a nod, or a gesture more animated, in the direction of Isaac. The likes of Josquin have flourishing academic industries committed to perpetuating their fame, but just as some rediscovered composers have to be added to this pantheon, so The Usual Suspects need to have their music scrutinised periodically to confirm that it really is as good as it is cracked up to be, in the light of continuing musical rediscoveries, and is not just reeled out as being rated among the best uncritically because it always has been. This is the value of a recording such as the one currently under review. Now that we are increasingly aware of just how many outstanding composers there were around the time of Josquin and in his wake, does an established star such as Isaac still deserve his elevated status?

The evidence of this disc is a stentorian affirmative. It is an extraordinarily good recording, as much for the quality of the music as for its performance. It is Cinquecento’s best recording since Palestrina’s second book of Lamentations (Hyperion CDA68284) and one cannot praise it more highly than that. They have made recordings of music by truly excellent, undeservedly neglected composers, besides some established fixtures, but sometimes a composer elbows his way out from among those who are even that good, and confirms that here is someone who is simply world class. That is what happens on this disc. Every track is outstanding, and Isaac is manifestly on a par with the greatest – you name them, he is their equal, from Machaut to Byrd via Josquin and, as we have seen, Palestrina. And he is aided by Cinquecento in blistering form. They can be monochromatic and pedestrian, but here they hit their straps, their interpretations fully complementing the quality of Isaac’s music. Besides the Mass, the programme includes six motets (one possibly by Obrecht rather than Isaac) and Josquin’s setting of the song on which Isaac bases his Mass.

First, to the Mass. As David J. Burn explains in his excellent notes, it is based upon a song that survives with both German and French texts. This is why Josquin’s setting in four parts with the French text Comment peult avoir joye? – itself a minor masterpiece – is included. Isaac’s Mass is in six parts, but a high proportion of its many sections are for reduced voices. He takes every aspect of the song and seems to present it in every way possible to a composer of his time. His judgment in varying the numbers voices, and reintroducing all six, is faultless, and Cinquecento duly respond faultlessly. Their voices resonate sonorously yet whether singing down to three parts or up to the full six, whether low in their register or high, whether loud or soft, every line is clearly audible, and its relationship to its fellows is perfectly balanced, while retaining the momentum essential to sustaining the rhetorical and narrative flow. Such is the quality of Isaac’s music and of Cinquecento’s execution that, for this listener, their excellence seems to grow with repeated hearings. So many passages clamour for notice; one in particular for this reviewer is the third and final Agnus in which Isaac’s effortless canonic contortions bring about breath-taking suspensions, while he allows the outline of his chosen tune to conduct the Mass to a sublime and satisfying conclusion.

In their different ways the motets, all in four or five parts, are just as fine. They range from the majestic O decus ecclesia in five parts, running to over twelve minutes – just before midway through the second part there is a divinely contrived descending sequence, subsequently repeated in outline ascending as well as descending again, the nature of which will be familiar to listeners acquainted with masses by composers as late as Rogier and Monteverdi – to the comparably minute Parce Domine at less than two minutes. Sonorities, melodies, harmonies, textures, narrative flow and rhythmic vitality are all products of the creative mind of a genius. These are served by Cinquecento with their best singing on disc, not only for the standard of their actual singing, but also for their interpretations, never bland, never exaggerated, always sensitive to Isaac’s settings of his texts. As the notes explain, the final work Judaea et Jerusalem might be by Obrecht. This seems quite possible to this listener, but even if it is by Obrecht, it sits well in this company, being the work of a composer whose stature is comparable to that of Isaac.

Admirers of Cinquecento will find themselves rewarded as never before by this recording. Admirers of Isaac who do not know this music, especially the mass, will find their admiration confirmed and perhaps even expanded. Explorers unacquainted with Isaac will discover a new musical territory replete with riches.

Richard Turbet