MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


CD REVIEW

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

Picture with drawn for code violation

alternatively
CD: AmazonUK AmazonUS

 

Canticum Canticorum
Roland de LASSUS (c.1532-1594)
Veni in hortum meum (1562) [3:28]
Giovanni Pierluigi da PALESTRINA (c.1525-1594)
Osculetur me osculo oris sui (1584) [3:08]
Heinrich SCHÜTZ (1585-1672)
Anima mea liquefacta est (1629) [4:21]
Adjuro vos (1629) [4:26]
Ego dormio (1625) [4:06]
Vulnerasti cor meum (1625) [3:31]
Domenico MAZZOCCHI (1592-1665)
Dialogo della cantica (1640) [7:01]
Healey WILLAN (1880-1968)
Rise Up, My Love, My Fair One (1928) [1:50]
William WALTON (1902-1983)
Set Me as a Seal upon Thine Heart (1938) [3:06]
Thomas TOMKINS (1572-1656)
My Beloved Spake (1668) [4:49]
Marc-Antoine CHARPENTIER (1643-1704)
Dilecti mi (n.d.) [4:28]
Pulchra es et decora (c.1687) [3:03]
Marin MARAIS (1656-1728)
Passacaille (1692) [6:49]
John DUNSTABLE (c.1390-1453)
Quam pulchra es (n.d.) [2:22]
Henry PURCELL (1659-1695)
My Beloved Spake (c.1677) [10:29]
Les Voix Baroques: Dorothee Mields, Catherine Webster (soprano), Matthew White (countertenor, artistic director), Colin Balzer (tenor), Sunner Thompson (baritone), Robert macdonald (bass); Helen Plouffe, Christina Zacharias (baroque violins), Margaret Little (baroque viola, viola da gamba), Amanda Keesmaat (baroque cello), Matthew Jennejohn, Douglas Kirk (cornets), Maxine Eilander (harp), Stephen Stubbs (lute, baroque guitar), Hank Knox (harpsichord, organ); guest musical director, Stephen Stubbs.
rec. 17-20 March, 2007, Church of St. Augustin de Mirabel, Quebec.
Texts and translations included.
ATMA ACD2 2503 [69:02]
Experience Classicsonline

In the Canterbury Tales, the most cynical of all of Chaucer’s narrators is the Merchant. In the course of his Tale he demonstrates a scorn for pretty well all the values of his age, be they religious, social, moral or aesthetic. At one point the elderly husband January addresses a love lyric to his young bride May, which begins thus:
 
Rys up, my wyf, my love, my lady free!
The turtles voys is herd, my dowve sweete;
The winter is goon with alle his reynes weete.
Come forth now, with thyne eyen columbyn!
How fairer been thy brestes than is wyn!
 
At the end of January’s lyric, the Merchant comments “Swiche olde lewed wordes used he”. The words come, of course, from the Song of Songs and, however grotesque January’s ‘love’ for May might be, the words he employs, while they may be “old” are certainly not merely “lewd”. They are words of marvellous erotic beauty, words that beyond their obvious amorous power have long been interpreted as a metaphorical expression of – amongst other things – the human longing for the divine. This is not the place to attempt discussion of the elaborate interpretations of the Song of Songs produced through generations of Jewish and Christian response to the text. Suffice it to say that, thank goodness, many outstanding composers have not shared the Merchant’s dismissive attitude towards these ‘old’ words. From at least Hildegard of Bingen onwards, composers great – and not so great – have been attracted (or perhaps sometimes commissioned) to set verses from the Song of Songs; leaving aside the composers featured on the present disc, one might add the names of Gioseffo Zarlino (1517-1590), Francisco Guerrero (1528-1599), Monteverdi, Allegri, and Telemann, or mention such modern works as Flos Campi (1925) by Vaughan Williams and Le Cantique des Cantiques (1952) by Daniel-Lesur. 
 
It isn’t clear who was responsible for putting together the present collection – presumably either Matthew White or Stephen Stubbs. Whoever it was, the selection and programming are excellent. Medieval, Renaissance, baroque and twentieth century settings are juxtaposed in creative (and never more than momentarily jarring) fashion. In addition to the stylistic variety thus created, a variety of sound is also ensured by the use of varying vocal and instrumental combinations. So, for example, we hear the Lassus motet sung by five voices with bass continuo, the motets by Schütz are sung by two tenors, two cornetts and bass continuo, and Palestrina’s motet is sung a capella. The lovely piece by Mazzocchi foregrounds the two sopranos (one heard as ‘echo’ to the other); Charpentier’s ‘Dilecti mi’ is sung by counter tenor, tenor and bass, again with continuo bass. We even get, by way of further variety a rewarding piece by Marais, played by two violins and continuo, which serves as a break from all the heady words which surround it.
 
Healey Willan is represented by two of his Three Motets in Honour of our Lady and are so lovely (even if their harmonic language comes as a bit of shock after Mazzocchi’s ‘Dialogo’ if one listens to the disc straight through) that one regrets the absence of the third. To my surprise I found myself preferring these two pieces even to the excellent setting by Walton which follows immediately on them. In the case of both Willan and Walton it is fascinating to hear the music sung one voice to a part.
 
The motets by Schütz are relatively early works, with many Italianate touches, and are settings of great vivacity and sensuousness. Charpentier’s ‘Pulchra es et decora’, for three treble voices (here the two sopranos and the counter tenor) and continuo bass is quite ravishing, a three minute elaboration on two lines of verse, written for the vespers of the Assumption of the Virgin.
 
It is fascinating to hear and compare the two settings of the Song of Solomon Chapter 2, verses 10-13 and 16 (‘My Beloved Spake’) by Tomkins and Purcell (and, of course, the first of Willan’s two motets incorporates some of the same words, those same words so caustically dismissed by Chaucer’s Merchant). The Purcell makes a magnificent conclusion to the disc.
 
The more, indeed, that one listens to this CD, the more one realises its riches (almost every track could be picked out for individual praise) and how much thought has gone into the planning of it. Throughout the singing and the instrumental work are alike are of a high order. The recorded sound is close and detailed but radiant.
 
Glyn Pursglove
 

 


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.