Over the years Peter
Phillips and the Tallis Scholars have
produced a steady stream of first-rate
recordings, many of which have deservedly
won awards. This famous recording is
the one that started it all.
Peter Philips founded
the group in 1973 and this, I believe,
was their first recording. It was made
in the Chapel of Merton College, Oxford,
presumably in 1979 or 1980 (the precise
date is not given) and it is now issued
at budget price to celebrate the twenty-fifth
anniversary of that release. Initially
the recording was issued on LP and cassette
by Classics for Pleasure and it was
something of a runaway success, achieving
sales of some 120,000 in its first five
years in the catalogue. By the time
the licence to CfP expired after five
years the Gimell label had been well
and truly launched by Phillips and his
colleague, Steve Smith. They happily
reclaimed the rights to their inaugural
recording and issued it on CD, since
when it’s been a fixture on the Gimell
list. In a nice touch the original CfP
sleeve design has been retained for
this reissue.
The recording is now
issued for the first time as a super-budget
price CD in celebration of the twenty-fifth
anniversary of its first release.
I suppose one major
reason for the initial success of the
record was the inclusion of Allegri’s
Miserere. Personally, I wouldn’t
acquire the disc for this repetitious
piece, which spins out a modest amount
of musical material over a very extended
period of time. That said, it receives
a fine, dedicated performance here and
those who have heard this version before
will know that Peter Phillips achieved
something of a coup with his
placing of the choral forces. The main
choir was positioned at one end of the
chapel while the solo quartet was stationed
at a distance - perhaps at the other
end of the chapel? The distancing effect
is quite magical and though this is
a layout that I’m sure has been copied
many times since I suspect that few,
if any, previous recordings had been
so imaginative. Incidentally, it’s interesting
to see that the solo group included
counter-tenor Michael Chance, presumably
just then embarking on his distinguished
career. He is joined in the semi-chorus
by soprano Alison Stamp who floats the
famous top Cs fearlessly and flawlessly.
The excellent singing and the ambience
created by the spatial separation together
with the engineers’ skill in using the
chapel’s intimate but pleasantly resonant
acoustic all combine to make this a
winning recording of the work.
The remainder of the
programme is, for me at least, of much
greater musical interest. The motet
by the Englishman, William Mundy, is
an astonishing achievement. Composed,
almost certainly, in the reign of Queen
Mary (1553-1558) its style is expansive
and exuberant. In his accompanying note
Peter Phillips refers to the "sensual
connotations" of the text, which is
an adaptation of verses from the ‘Song
of Solomon’. "Sensual" is just the word
to describe this music which grows in
complexity and richness as the setting
progresses. At the start the music is
carried by small consort groups of soloists
and the full choir is not heard until
several minutes into the piece. Thereafter
sections for full choir are juxtaposed
with passages for smaller ensembles
and Mundy’s splendidly imaginative and
intelligent use of varied vocal textures
make this an absorbing piece. Incidentally,
in the booklet the full Latin text and
translations are provided and the various
forces used for each section are specified.
This helps the listener’s appreciation
greatly. One can only describe the last
few minutes of music as exuberant and
Phillips builds the piece to a fervent,
open-throated conclusion. This is an
impressive piece of polyphony, most
impressively performed.
Palestrina’s Mass setting,
which was probably composed in 1556,
is roughly contemporaneous with Mundy’s
work. It is a very fine achievement,
offering concision and directness of
expression. The slow, sustained Agnus
Dei is exquisitely beautiful and Palestrina’s
inspiration is very strong elsewhere
too, especially in the Gloria and Credo.
This fine Mass is splendidly and convincingly
performed here. Some may object that
the sound produced by the Tallis Scholars
is too "English" for Italian music.
I can only say that I find the sheer
beauty of sound most compelling and
where it’s called for there’s an appropriate
degree of fervour. In fact, with the
benefit of hindsight one can now say
that this performance - and the performances
of the other pieces on this disc - exhibits
all the hallmarks that we’ve come to
associate with this ensemble over the
years. Tuning is impeccable, as is the
blending of the voices. There’s also
a splendid clarity of both diction and
texture. It’s easy to take this for
granted when one hears such expert singing
but it can only be the product of hours
of fastidious rehearsing. I also admire
greatly the sheer control of the singing.
This comes through in the dynamic range
and also in the way the long lines of
polyphony are spun out with what seems
like a timeless inevitability.
This is a disc which
has attained something approaching classic
status over the years, and rightly so.
It was the start of a long, and happily
continuing, series of splendid recordings
by this group. I’m delighted that this
CD is now available at budget price
and I hope that this will stimulate
interest among a new generation of collectors.
In the quarter of a century since it
first appeared (and that’s quite a scary
thought!) there have been innumerable
fine recordings of early and polyphonic
vocal music by the Tallis Scholars and
by many other equally fine ensembles.
However, these performances still stand
out from the crowd as benchmarks of
excellence.
The recorded sound,
though analogue, wears its years lightly
and offers very pleasing and truthful
reproduction. The documentation, in
English, French and German, is good.
In summary, this fine disc can be recommended
without reservation.
John Quinn
Photographs of the Tallis Scholars,
including one of them performing in
Merton College Chapel in 1980, can be
found at
www.gimell.com/photographs
The Tallis Scholars/Peter Phillips 
