From time to time a
disc comes across the desk that is so
superior that you have to fish for criticisms.
As I believe that a healthy balance
of praise and constructive critique
is a good thing, and lends more to the
credibility of the writer, I never hesitate
to make suggestions for improvement,
even on the finest of recordings. Such
is the case with this performance of
music by the English master, Thomas
Tallis. There is indeed little to call
down here, and the negative comments
that I do have about it are more the
fault of the compositional style and
the recording venue’s acoustics than
any error on the part of ensemble or
conductor.
Tallis served four
British monarchs in his remarkable career,
remarkable as much for what we do not
know about it as for what we do. Actually,
quite little is known about his life
except that he was quite well known
and respected from an early age and
that he along with his student William
Byrd, held an exclusive right to publish
music in England under Elizabeth I and
thus became financially as well as artistically
secure.
His masterpiece is
certainly the forty-voice Spem in
alium. Written for eight five-voice
choirs it is also a clever puzzle, with
the composer’s name embedded in its
compositional structure. Summerly’s
Oxford Camerata is the perfect ensemble
for this piece, singing with unusual
clarity and spotless intonation. Often
this work becomes a muddled wash of
sound, but not so in this case. There
are actually moments when one can pick
out a phrase or two of text in the massive
sound palette.
The motet Salve
intemerata although beautifully
sung is not as successful as the mass
which parodies it later in the disc.
In short, it is a bit long! And even
the best of note-spinners can get spun
out when the length of the text outweighs
the cleverness of the ideas. The mass
however, is astounding and if you buy
this disc for nothing other than that,
you will have gotten double your money’s
worth. Missing a Kyrie, and a tenor
part (skillfully reconstructed here),
this is one of the most stunning mass
settings ever to fall upon these jaded
ears.
And, it is beautifully
sung. Crystalline tone, superior enunciation
and clarity of line make this one of
the most memorable performances of a
mass ordinary that I have ever heard.
The program is rounded
out by a handful of English motets,
hampered slightly by the basic unintelligibility
of the texts. These are church anthems,
meant to carry a message, and said message
is lost when you cannot understand the
words. Once in a while a phrase comes
through, but more attention to this
detail is wanting. With the echoing
acoustic much text gets lost, so perhaps
different microphone placement would
have been a good solution.
This is a complete
winner, even with my few little nit-pickings.
Buy it soon; it is a spiritual experience.
Kevin Sutton
Oxford Camerata/Jeremy Summerly 
