Duarte LOBO (c.1565-1646)
Masses, Responsories and motets
Audivi vocem de cælo
(Liber Missarum, 1621) [2:42]
Missa Sancta Maria
(Liber Missarum, 1621) [19:33]
Hodie nobis cælorum rex
(Opuscula, 1602) [4:32]
Hodie nobis de cælo
(Opuscula, 1602) [1:49]
Quem vidistis pastores?
(Opuscula, 1602) [3:08]
O magnum mysterium
(Opuscula, 1602) [2:39]
Beata Dei genitrix
(Opuscula, 1602) [1:53]
Sancta et immaculata
(Opuscula, 1602) [3:06]
Beata viscera
(Opuscula, 1602) [2:54]
Verbum caro
(Opuscula, 1602) [3:58]
Missa Elisabeth Zachariæ
(Liber Missarum, 1621) [21:50]
Alma redemptoris mater
(Opuscula, 1602) [2:12]
Cupertinos/Luís Toscano
rec. Basilica do Bom Jesu, Braga, Portugal, 24-26 July 2019. DDD.
First recordings except first and last tracks.
Texts and translations included.
Reviewed as 24/96 download with pdf booklet from
hyperion-records.co.uk.
Also available on CD and in 16-bit and 24/192 download formats.
HYPERION CDA68306
[70:47]
If there is anything more enthrallingly beautiful than the sacred polyphony
of sixteenth-century England, it’s to be found in Iberian music of the
period and slightly later. Victoria, of course, but the two Lobos, the
Spaniard Alonso and the Portuguese Duarte, are up there with the finest.
Duarte is sometimes spelled with a circumflex accent to distinguish the
two: Duarte Lôbo. He seems to have had an international reputation in his
time, his music printed by Plantin in Antwerp, and he was influential on
many of the next generation of Portuguese composers. Most of them are now
just names, with just the odd work recorded in collections; perhaps
Hyperion might bring us some of their music?
If
it sounds ungrateful to be asking for more, let me add at once that when Hyperion bring us
two Mass settings by Duarte, in first recordings, it’s good cause for
rejoicing. When I last encountered Cupertinos – for the first time – in
Cardoso’s Lamentations and Responsories for Maundy Thursday and Requiem, that was a Recommended recording, even in preference to
another Hyperion recording of similar material on which El León de Oro are
directed by Peter Phillips –
Winter 2018-19/2.
Though Cardoso’s music has not been neglected, that was – and remains –
the only current recording of his 4-part Requiem, so especially
recommendable. Richard Hanlon
also welcomed that debut album from Cupertinos –
review.
It’s not surprising that Cupertinos have gone from Cardoso to Lobo, as The
Sixteen did when they combined the two on a recording entitled Renaissance Portugal (COR16032). I reviewed that, too, in
Winter 2018-19/2
– it’s back catalogue, dating from 1993, but very worthwhile back
catalogue, and it includes a version of Audivi vocem de cælo to
compare with the new recording.
I also listened again to an earlier Hyperion recording of the music of Lobo
and the even more elusive Magalhães (CDH55138, William Byrd Choir/Gavin
Turner, download only). That includes Audivi vocem and the 8-part Requiem and, although it’s now more expensive than when I
reviewed
it, it remains very worthwhile. (Lossless download or Archive CD from
hyperion-records.co.uk.) There’s also a very fine account of Audivi vocem on a recording
of Spanish and Portuguese seventeenth century sacred music by the choir of The Queen’s
College, Oxford, and Owen Rees (Guild GMCD7323 –
review).
For a small group – three sopranos, two each of altos, tenors and basses –
Cupertinos make a bold sound. I don’t mean to sound patronising when I
comment on how cleanly they hit the notes – I’ve heard too many Iberian
choirs mangle the music of their own peninsula, but recordings like this,
their earlier Cardoso, and the Hyperion album with El León de Oro show how far performance style
has progressed, and can now be compared with the very best.
Audivi vocem
is the first track on the new recording and, though the text is associated
with funerals, Cupertinos take it at quite a pace; faster than the Marian
Consort and Roy McCleery on a recording of the music of lamentation from
renaissance Portugal (Delphian DCD34205) and Bo Holten with Ars Nova (Portuguese Polyphony Naxos 8.553310). Turner, on Hyperion, takes
the piece more slowly still, yet there is no lack of reverence in the
singing of Cupertinos, or of The Sixteen, who also take the music at a fast
pace.
In any case, the text speaks of hope and consolation: ‘From henceforth
blessed are the dead who die in the Lord … for they rest from their
labours’, so there is no need to be too lugubrious. Not that the three
slower recordings are lugubrious, but, all in all, there is a strong case
for keeping this short piece moving.
It would have been good to have had at least one recording of Audivi vocem from a choir with boys’ voices on the top line – say,
from Westminster Cathedral Choir, who have recorded the music of Alonso
Lobo, but not that of Duarte. Perhaps we may hope for a recording of
Duarte’s music from them; it would be good to hear them in one or both of
the Masses which form the main content of the new Hyperion, or, better
still, more unrecorded repertoire.
That said, the lack of boys' voices is not a huge issue. I really cannot criticise Cupertinos in these two Masses. The
music of Portugal in the early seventeenth century would have sounded very
conservative to a Venetian who had heard Monteverdi, but that in no way
detracts from its power and beauty, both aspects to be found in good measure in
these performances. Indeed, far from being unadventurous, the music often
goes well beyond the precepts of the theorists, while remaining broadly in
line with them. The size of the group means that the words of the texts can
mostly be heard – not always possible with compositions of this complexity
– yet when the music swells, like an approaching wave, there is plenty of
strength in the singing.
Perhaps with an eye on the Christmas market, the space between the two
Masses is filled with performances of responsories for the Nativity period,
only recently published and, like the Masses, recorded for the first time. All are short but attractive, and the recording is
rounded off with the brief 8-part Alma Redemptoris Mater, the
antiphon for the period from Advent Sunday to Candlemas, the only other
work otherwise available; like Audivi vocem it’s also included on
the Guild recording from Queen’s College, Oxford.
I still return most often to the music of Victoria among the Hispanic
composers of the renaissance, and that’s where I recommend any newcomers to
start to appreciate the music of the period. It’s more dramatic than the
music of his contemporary Palestrina and, though Organ Morgan, in Under
Milk Wood, nominated the
latter as second only to Bach, in some moods I prefer Victoria. There are
several good recordings of his best-known work, the Requiem, from
The Sixteen on SACD (CORSACD16033), or The Tallis Scholars (CDGIM205, 2 CDs
for the price of one, with Duarte Lôbo, Requiem, etc.) for
example.
The Gimell twofer offers an excellent chance to compare the music of
Victoria with that of the two Lobos, and serves to remind the listener
that, different though they are, the music of Duarte can hold its own in the
company of the others. The performances by Cupertinos serve to strengthen
the case for his music; the very fine performances are supported by
first-rate recording and the usual excellent Hyperion presentation. Another
recording to lift the spirits.
Brian Wilson
