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

alternatively
CD: Crotchet AmazonUK AmazonUS

 

Audivi Vocem
Thomas TALLIS
(c. 1505-1585)
In ieiunio et fletu [4:25]
Te lucis ante terminum [2:19]
Audivi vocem [3:59]
Christopher TYE (c.1505-1572)
Omnes gentes [5:04]
Gloria Missa Sine Nomine [7:09]
John SHEPPARD (c. 1515-1558)
Gaudete celicole omnes [5:55]
Beati omnes [6:39]
Christopher TYE
Credo (from Missa Sine Nomine) [6:39]
Thomas TALLIS
Salvator mundi [2:30]
John SHEPPARD
Laudate pueri Dominum [6:11]
Christopher TYE
Sanctus (from Missa Sine Nomine) [5:56]
John SHEPPARD
Eterne rex, altissime [4:05]
Christopher TYE
Agnus Dei (from Missa Sine Nomine) [5:13]
In pace, in idipsum [5:02]
Hilliard Ensemble: (David James (counter-tenor); Rogers Covey-Crump (tenor); Steven Harrold (tenor); Gordon Jones (baritone); Robert Macdonald (bass))
rec. March 2005, Propstei St. Gerold. DDD
ECM NEW SERIES 1936 [72:06]
Experience Classicsonline

With the ever-increasing list of awards and praise for the Hilliard Ensemble, any of their releases will be cause for interest among collectors, and jubilation among purveyors of good music. This new CD will be especially welcome, as it sees the Hilliard Ensemble returning to its roots in early music, this time of that period broadly known as the Reformation.
 
It seems remarkable, but the last time the Hilliard Ensemble approached a programme of British music from this period was in 1987 with their Tallis recording “The Lamentation of Jeremiah”, on ECM New Series 1341. This new disc offers an opportunity to hear performances of music from the early English a cappella repertoire of Thomas Tallis, Christopher Tye and John Sheppard, who were all active during a period when Britain’s political and religious landscape swung violently between Catholicism and Protestantism.
 
It was Henry VIII who famously broke the ties with Rome, but he nonetheless remained Catholic in his liturgical taste. His successor Edward VI introduced a puritanical Protestant regime, which inevitably had a considerable effect on church music. By contrast Queen Mary restored a fervent Catholicism, and only when Elizabeth I gained the throne in 1558 was a moderately Protestant compromise reached. Composers in this turbulent period consequently had to adapt to these frequent and often extreme liturgical changes, and those on this CD all profited from the ensuing musical developments and managed to shape it for themselves. David Skinner prepared the scores and offered academic advice for this programme. He writes in his booklet notes that “The Reformation, it transpires, was a very good thing for music: it forced composers to explore a variety of compositional techniques, and, most importantly, how better to set a text. It was these skills, developed, tried and tested by the likes of Tye, Sheppard and Tallis that set the foundation for the next generation of composers.”
 
Comparing the Hilliard of 1987 with that of now shows few real differences. Paul Hillier has now moved on to other things, and his baritone is replaced by Gordon Jones, but the distinctive counter-tenor of David James is still a defining factor in the vocal colour of the ensemble. Propstei St. Gerold is a less effusive acoustic than the All Hallows London used for the ‘Lamentations’ CD, and so the feeling is more intimate with this present recording, with the ensemble sounding less like a choir, something which harmonises nicely with this kind of music. As with many of the Hilliard’s recordings, this programme has been carefully assembled. Tye’s gorgeous “Missa Sine Nomine” serves as the backbone for a suite of responses, antiphons and anthems by all three English composers, and the result is a highly satisfying ‘fantasy mix’ of styles unified by period and intent, but varying surprisingly in a myriad of subtle stylistic features.
 
John Sheppard has long been a favourite of mine, and his hard-to-analyse individualistic approach is reflected in expressive lines, distinctive contrapuntal variation and the deliberate emotional impact of delaying vocal entries for full effect. Tallis’s own style of rich harmonic movement is amply expressed in the Salvator Mundi, which manages to sound as if far more than five voices are involved. Christopher Tye is probably the least well known of the three on this disc, and details on his life are sketchy, though he seems to have produced most of his work during the reign of Edward VI. We can only lament that so little of his music survives to this day, as the mass movements performed here are truly magnificent. David Skinner’s booklet essay is titled ‘The Weight of the Word’. It is the contrast in emphasis between homophonic and contrapuntal devices which adds a lively and engaging touch to the communication of the liturgical messages in the text. The spine-tingling beauty of some of the passages in his Sanctus are something of a highlight on a disc which is in itself a glorious artefact from beginning to end.
 
Dominy Clements
 

 


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

 

 


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.