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             


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


 REVIEW


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos 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

 

 

alternatively
CD: Crotchet


Alessandro SCARLATTI (1660-1725)
Missa breve, e concertata a cinque voci[14:25]
Motets
Ad Dominum dum tribularer [4:10]
Justitiae Domini [3:36]
Exsurge Domine [2:57]
Exaltabo te Domine [3:28]
Domine in auxilium meum [3:41]
Exultate Deo [2:50]
Domenico SCARLATTI (1685-1757)
Stabat Mater (1715-19) [24:26]
The Choir of Christ’s College, Cambridge/David Rowland
Jonathan Hellyer Jones (organ: Missa); Adam Baker (organ: Stabat)
rec. St George’s Church, Chesterton, Cambridge, UK, 16-17 March 2008. DDD.
Texts and translations included
REGENT REGCD283 [59:33]
Experience Classicsonline

I have just made a Hyperion recording of Alessandro Scarlatti’s Davidis pugna et victoria my Recording of the Month and Download of the Month. This Regent CD is not in the same category, but it does represent an important addition to the Scarlatti discography, since father Alessandro’s Missa breve and some of the motets are here recorded for the first time. Its value is increased by the inclusion of Domenico Scarlatti’s Stabat Mater; this is a work less often recorded than his father’s, an excellent version of which is available from Naïve Baroque Voices at mid price (OP30441, Concerto Italiano/Rinaldo Alessandrini, with the Pergolesi Stabat Mater, ‘a beautiful and moving disc’ - see Glyn Pursglove’s review).

It was wise of Regent and the performers to avoid comparison with more established recordings of Alessandro’s music. For about half of this CD Christ’s College Choir and David Rowland have the field more or less to themselves, unless and until another recording of the Missa breve comes along. Christ’s performance of this work will do well in the meantime, but it isn’t difficult to imagine a better. Though I am always pleased to see other choirs at Cambridge and Oxford taking on the top dogs from King’s, Christ Church and New College, I have to say that I thought that Christ’s here rose to the challenge less convincingly than Queen’s College, Oxford, in their recording of 17th-century Iberian music, Cæli porta, which I recommended some months ago (Guild GMCD7323 - see review).

Without even mentioning those more established choirs, and comparing the singing of Christ’s choir here with mixed college choirs such as Queen’s, Oxford, and Trinity, Cambridge, their singing is at best somewhat forthright and at worst a little rough and ready. It’s good enough to allow us to enjoy the Missa breve and one wouldn’t complain at singing of this quality at a regular celebration of a Choral Eucharist. They rightly make us sit up and take notice at the opening of Kyrie eleison but they sound much less tonally secure than one might like and the recording tends to blast slightly.

This may be an accurate reflection of how the music sounded when it was first sung - I have heard Spanish and Italian cathedral choirs sound much rougher than the singing here, including some very unsteady Victoria at High Mass in Toledo Cathedral - and the recording may be partly to blame, but it’s not what we have become used to hearing from professional groups such as Alessandrini’s Concerto Italiano or the best English cathedral and collegiate choirs.

Matters improve as the Mass progresses and the six motets by Alessandro fare even better - often much better than the opening sections of the Mass. This went some considerable way to reconciling me to this recording; I shall return to it for the works which are unavailable elsewhere, but even the motets sound slightly tentative and insecure by comparison with the best. There’s potentially a much more affective interpretation of Ad Dominum cum tribularer (track 6) to be given than we are offered here, for example: the opening words bespeak a cry from the heart and the closing words are a prayer for release from deceit. Only the central section, et exaudivit me, tell of the Lord’s consolation, but the whole piece as performed here is too untroubled, with no contrast between the cry and its answer.

The following Justitiæ Domini (tr.7) tells of the sweetness of God’s judgements - sweeter than honey, yea than the honeycomb. The sweetness is all here, but not the delight which those judgements are said to bring to the heart - lætificantes corda. In fact, all six motets sound remarkably alike in tone as performed here, with the possible exception of Exsurge Domine (tr.8), where the choir does achieve a measure of regret at the prospect of enemies prevailing.

Just to remind myself of how good Alessandro’s music can sound, I listened to Nicholas McGegan’s reconstruction of his music for Vespers on St Cecilia’s Day (AV0048, 2 CDs - see review and review). Not all the singing on this Avie set is ideal, but the whole experience is more gratifying than on the new Regent CD.

Rival recordings of Domenico’s Stabat mater come from Roger Norrington on a Double Decca, coupled with other settings of the same work (443 868-2) and the Immortal Bach Ensemble on Naxos, with his Magnificat, Te Deum, etc. (8.570382, a disappointing performance for Johan van Veen - see review). There is also a recently reissued budget-price EMI compilation of his music, also including the Stabat mater, Magnificat and Te Deum, from Christ’s better-known rivals at King’s (2357352, ‘a programme worth investigating’ - see Robert Hugill’s review). The best performance of all, perhaps, comes again from Concerto Italiano and Rinaldo Alessandrini on Naïve mid-price OP30446, with the Missa quatuor vocum, a performance which Johan van Veen greatly preferred to the Naxos in his review of the latter (see above).

Against the high standards on offer from these rivals, I’m afraid that some of the same considerations apply as with Alessandro. Satisfactory as it would be in a live performance - the singing is firmer here and there is some really affective identification with the sufferings of Mary at the foot of the cross - the new version faces stiff competition, when one considers that the Norrington, nominally a two-for-the-price-of-one set, actually usually sells for as little as around £9.

After the rather harsh opening sections of Alessandro’s Mass, the sound improves greatly and I found myself listening to the closing sections of Domenico’s Stabat mater with real enjoyment that the singing and recording had improved so much that I wondered if I had been too judgemental at the start. On reflection, I hadn’t, at least not by much - even in the final Amen chorus (tr.21) there’s an element of insecurity - but I shall certainly look forward to hearing other recordings from this source.

The presentation of the new Regent CD is good, with brief but informative notes, full texts and translations. I wish the booklet and insert could have been consistent, however, in the name of the mass - is it missa breve (front cover, p.2, p.4 track details and rear insert) or messa breve (pp.3 and 4 notes, p.5 footnote) or even messe breve (top p.2)?

Brian Wilson 

 


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.