Tag: Choral music

The Brabant Ensemble, conducted by Stephen Rice
Hyperion CDA68265
79’14

The French composer Antoine de Fevin was born around 1470 probably at Arras, where his father was an Alderman (although one source describes Antoine as being of Orleans), and he seems to have died by 1512, possibly late in 1511. He is therefore of that generation of Franco-Flemish polyphonists which thrived between Josquin and Palestrina. Besides the two masses which give the disc its snappy title, the programme also includes two motets: the six-part Ascendens Christus in altum and two versions of the composer’s most popular motet Sancta trinitas, Fevin’s original in four parts and an expansion into six by his younger contemporary Arnold von Bruck.

Missa Ave Maria is based on the well-known motet by Josquin. Originally published in 1515, it appeared in an accessible modern edition put out by Annie Bank of Amsterdam in 1950 (from which your reviewer sang as a callow bass in the early 1960s). While it shares music (as at the end of the Credo) and stylistic traits (passages of paired voices) with the older composer (Fevin was noted during the sixteenth century as a follower of Josquin) there are other passages such as “qui tollis peccata mundi” in the third and final Agnus which seem to point towards the fuller polyphony and structural use of sequences in all parts developed in the music of later composers such as Gombert and particularly Clemens.

Attractive individual lines and strikingly successful sonorities, including an adroit use of homophony amongst the prevailing counterpoint, are to the fore in his motet Ascendens Christus where he exploits the possibilities of his chosen six-part scoring. This is a text that cries out to be illustrated musically, and Fevin himself rises to the occasion in depicting Christ as he was lifted up, favouring us with some of the Renaissance’s most exquisite writing for upper voices in three parts, complemented by a beautiful response from the lower voices. There had been doubt about the attribution to Antoine de Fevin of this motet but a source recently discovered has confirmed it. Although some passages sound modern for circa 1500, hence the justified uncertainty about the attribution to Fevin, there are also some mediaeval turns of phrase which peg the work to the period of Fevin’s lifetime. It is also important to mention the delightful settings of alleluia which occur in both sections of this radiantly beautiful bipartite work.

Fevin’s Sancta trinitas survives in no fewer than 41 sources, according to Grove including the abovementioned version expanded into six parts by Bruck. If Ascendens Christus sounds unlike the work of a follower of Josquin, this motet, with its prominent passages of paired voices, is most Josquinian, and is no harbinger of the innovations wrought by Gombert and his ilk a few decades later. The rather sparse initial passages give way to exultant and, within the limitations of writing for four parts, luxuriant polyphony at the final “speculum”. Bruck’s additional parts seem to gild this particular lily, though it is interesting to have the two settings juxtaposed.

A greater sense of continuity prevails in the Missa Salve sancta parens than in the Missa Ave Maria and this is perhaps it is because it is based on a plainchant rather than being tied to an entire motet, especially one by a composer from the previous generation, where structurally and stylistically there was more building upon individual episodes than, as with later composers, creating a more continuous narrative. The overall impression is still Josquinian but of a work that could only have been composed by a composer on the musical road progressing beyond Josquin. This is best illustrated in, again, the Agnus, where the austerely energetic duet which makes up Agnus II is followed by a positively luxuriant concluding Agnus III, where Fevin expressively exploits repetition and sequence in all four parts to impressive effect.

If the two masses have occasional longueurs among their many felicities, and Sancta trinitas – fine work that it is – comes across as one of those pieces which had more resonance for contemporaries than perhaps it has for posterity, nevertheless Ascendens Christus is simply stunning, and rewards repeated hearings. If it is indeed by Fevin, as seems proven, he has been insulted by having its attribution to him queried; that said, it is a work that is so striking even amongst his three other distinguished pieces on this disc, that the raising of quizzical eyebrows has perhaps been forgivable. In a venue with a slightly drier acoustic than on some of their recent recordings, the Brabant Ensemble make an excellent case for Fevin.

Richard Turbet

Gallicantus, Gabriel Crouch
53:10
Signum SIG CD 520

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his CD presents the remarkable music of Lassus’ Prophetae Sibyllarum interspersed with contemporary music written in response to it with a couple of chants by Hildegard von Bingen, slightly shoe-horned into the mix, by virtue of her epithet “the Sibyll of the Rhine”. The male-voice ensemble produces a warm and beautifully polished sound, and more importantly for highly chromatic music such as Lassus writes here, they have wonderful focus and pinpoint accurate intonation. Those not familiar with this rather visionary side of Lassus will be intrigued with the daringly exploratory writing style, similar to his Lagrime di San Pietro cycle and bordering on the uniquely strange world of Gesualdo. Wisely, though, the ensemble doesn’t just rely on the strangeness of this score, but work to find the music behind the notes, producing a genuinely moving performance of some of Lassus’ most heartfelt utterances. Is a well-known fact that Lassus suffered from sometimes crippling depression, suggesting bipolarity, and this strange, otherworldly music seems to touch on some of his lowest, darkest moods as well as episodes of sublime transcendence. Resulting from a project at Princeton University which also gave rise to the contemporary compositions, this CD is evidence of an intimate understanding of this challenging music and is as fine an account of the score as has been committed to CD to date. Particular plaudits are due to the group’s wonderfully clean-voiced countertenors, David Allsopp and Mark Chambers, and to baritone, Gabriel Crouch, who charts their intelligent and expressive route through the music while also holding one of the vocal lines.

Brian Clark

The Choir of Westminster Abbey, James O’Donnell
62:40
hyperion CDA68192
+Alleluia Ora pro nobis, Hac clara die turma, Ninefold Kyrie

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his selection of Marian music by Nicholas Ludford usefully presents his polyphony in a semi-liturgical context. For example, his Ninefold Kyrie, a so-called ‘square’, appears in alternatim with an anonymous two-part organ piece on the same ‘square’ played by James O’Donnell. Extra ‘verses’ appear in modern organ elaborations by Magnus Williamson. Similarly Ludford’s polyphonic setting of Alleluia. Ora pro nobis appears in alternatim with chant verses, as does his setting of Hac clara die turma. His mouth-watering setting of Ave Maria, ancilla Trinitas represents his more typically flamboyant polyphonic side, opening with two- and three part polyphony before the full choral forces are unleashed on the verse Ave Maria suor angelorum – clearly Ludford’s singers represent the voices of the angels. The Westminster Abbey Choir sing this music with considerable authority and commitment, and there is a fine balance between the adult and children’s voices. I can still remember the stir when the Cardinall’s Musick released their ground-breaking series of recordings of Ludford’s Masses on ASV in the early 1990s, bringing his music to a wider audience for the first time in modern times and instantly restoring the composer’s name to the list of first rank Renaissance English composers. Something of that wonder still lingers on hearing his imaginative and utterly assured setting of Ave Maria and being reminded of the virtues of his Mass Videte miraculum. The present performances capture well his lithe vocal lines with their smooth transitions between reduced forces episodes and declamatory full choir sections and glorious concluding perorations. Gold stars to the choir’s excellent trebles who cope admirably with the work’s two complex treble lines. In glancing back at the ASV recordings, I recall the golden days when masses were presented in a rudimentary liturgical framework – it seems regrettably as if these days are past, but this CD with its nod in that direction is probably the next best thing.

D. James Ross

De Profundis, Robert Hollingworth
70:49
hyperion 68257
+Assumpsit Jesus Petrum, Assumpta est Maria, De profundis, Magnificat primi toni, Surge propera amica mea, Veni dilecte mi & Versa est in luctum

[dropcap]F[/dropcap]or those of us more used to hearing Renaissance and early baroque Spanish polyphony sung by mixed choirs and at relatively high pitch, this recording comes as both a surprise and something of a revelation. De Profundis is a relatively large group for this music: six or seven singers per voice part in an all-male line-up with falsetto voices on the top line. Its name reflects its ethos in performing at low pitch and, on this recording, is directed by Robert Hollingsworth who uses the opportunity to aim for a more balanced and inter-dependent sound than that of other groups. The result is a very homogenous texture with excellent tuning and close attention to the text. A bassoon adds depth to the bottom line, both in the polyphony and in the tutti sections of the plainchant, as was customary in Spanish cathedrals. The Mass movements are broken up with idiomatically-sung plainchant and offertory and communion motets. Then come five further motets and an alternatim Magnificat. It is a well-chosen programme which shows the breadth of Vivanco’s achievement, from the expressive depths of the motets De Profundis and Versa est in luctum to the riotous counterpoint of the Mass’s Osanna and the motet Assumpta est Maria. My own favourites were the two Song of Songs motets, Surge propera and Veni dilecte mi which, while largely homophonic, are particularly fine examples of word-setting and expression. The choir sings with great commitment and forward momentum, maybe too much of the latter at times in the Mass where a bit more contrast would not have come amiss. Bruno Turner has given a guiding hand throughout and has written his usual highly informative liner notes. The group is to be congratulated on a very well-planned and successfully executed project.

Noel O’Regan