Page 43 - Church Music Quarterly June 2018

REVIEWS
BOOKS & CDs
★★★
ENGLISH MOTETS
The Gesualdo Six / Owain Park · Hyperion CDA68256
The Gesualdo Six hardly need areviewo thistheirdebutCD: within days o its release around Easteritwastopo theiTunes classical chart. The CD is a collectiono EnglishRenaissance motets composed over a 200-year period o considerable change in musical ashions combined with religious turbulence. Composers include William Cornysh, Tallis andByrdo course,Gibbons, Taverner, John Sheppard, Thomas Morley and Thomas Tomkins. Theensemblewas ormedin2014 by Owain Park when he was an organ scholar at Trinity College, Cambridge. The group has since made its name touring in the UK and abroad. I heard them singing
live earlier this year; theirs is a silky, smooth, resh sound, and, with just a hand ul o singers, there’s an intimacy o per ormance not possible with larger numbers. There’s some ni ty singing on this CD – Byrd’s Vigilate is a case in point – and, by contrast, warmth and richness in works such as John Sheppard’sLiberanos,salvanos. Phrasing must be mentioned too: Byrd’s anguished Lenten motets Ne irascaris, Domine and Civitas sancti tui are allowed to be precisely that, with sensitive shaping o phrases. Both motets – and others – are
per ormed at a tempo where the part writing can breathe, and, talkingo breathing,thereissome master ul breath control here too. With comprehensive, scholarly CD notes rom Owain Park, this
is an excellent collection.
Stuart Robinson
CDs
★ Worth hearing
★ ★ Recommended
★ ★ ★ Essential listening
CHORAL CDs
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Anthem5 and folk 5ong5 from the comers of the British Isles
Cantemus Chamber Choir
Pete r K,,.,g
★★
UNDER A CELTIC SKY: Anthems and folk songs from the corners
of the British Isles
Cante usCha berChoir/ PeterKing(organ)/HuwWillia s● Regent REGCD502
They are terrible and dread ul. Not the way to start a CD review perhaps, but I have to. Play it and you will see what I mean: your ears are assailed with this line (among otherso course) romStanord’s fneanthemForlo,Iraiseupthat opens this whistle-stop Celtic musicaltouro sacredandsecular musicbyPaulMealor,Philip
Stop ord, John Rutter, Parry and Britten.Cantemus,aCardi -based choir, comes into its own with its singingo theWelshnumberssuch as Geraint Lewis’s rich and sonorous The souls of the righteous and William Mathias’sjocularsettingo Four Welsh folk songs. Cantemus has
a wonder ul, mellow blend throughout. Add to that some splendid organ accompaniment
rom Peter King on the organ o Keble College Chapel, Ox ord where this CD was recorded and you have a fne collection. Gary Cole o
Regent has beauti ully captured thefnequalityo thischoirinthe chapel’s fne acoustic. And, as you’ve guessed, listening to this CD is anything but terrible and dread ul.
★★★
EVENSONG FROM YORK MINSTER
Choir of York Minster / RobertSharpe● RegentREGCD506 There’sa‘fyonthewall’ eeltothis CDthathasalltheelementso Book o CommonPrayerevensong,with organ music be orehand, canticles, two lessons, prayers and a hymn, and fnally the closing voluntary. What better way to start than to hear Francis Jackson’s Improvisation –agentledemonstrationo the minster organ’s subtle tone colours! What ollowsisademonstration
o theversatilityo theminster choir under its director, Robert Sharpe. The psalm chanting is
e ortless and unhurried, with
e ective organ accompaniment
by Benjamin Morris. There are fne per ormances o Howells’s grand
St Paul’s Service and his more refective O pray for the peace of Jerusalem. I especially like the CD’s thought ul construction refecting achurch’sdedication estival:the ‘living stones’ theme runs through thechoiceo readings(Jacob’sdream andPeter’sepistle),Bairstow’s anthem Blesse city and the hymn ‘YethatknowtheLordisgracious’.
Thetexto thewholeserviceis reproduced in the CD notes, with comprehensivecommentarybyJohn Lees. A bonus is Vaughan Williams’s Te Deum in G, and, a ter the dismissal,
a Vierne Toccata that brings this service to a triumphant close.
★★
BYRD MOTETS
Choir of King’s College, Ca bridge /StephenCleobury● King’sCollege, Ca bridgeKGS0024 HereisanotherCDonKing’sown label:afneaccounto Latinmotets composed during the reign o ElizabethIbyWilliamByrd (c.1540–1623).Atthetime,Latin motets were banned in church. YetByrdmanagedtoleadadouble
li e; privately as a Catholic and outwardly as a loyal pro essional musician in Lincoln Cathedral and later at the Chapel Royal. On this CD the motets ollow the course o the church year. Advent is represented by Rorate caeli and Vigilate. Most o the per ormances are given by the ull choir, but there are a couple o exceptions. The season o Lent or instance is refected by somewhat brisk but nonetheless superbly voiced per ormances by the choral
scholarso NeirascarisandCivitas sancti tui. Other motets include Haec ies or Easter and Byrd’s much-loved
Ave verum corpus. A comprehensive and scholarly essay, ‘Byrd the Catholic’ by Iain Fenlon, explains the protracted circumstances in which these motets were written. Listening totheminthespaciousacoustico King’schapel,Fenlon’spieceserves as an abrupt reminder that in Byrd’sdaythesemotetswere perormedinclandestineCatholic households. Five hundred years orsolater,it’sadichotomythat’s hard to get one’s head around.
Stuart Robinson
REVIEWS 43