Amazon.co.uk allows you to pay for your items in your local currency. Restrictions apply. Learn More. |
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
Listen to Samples and Buy MP3s
|
Product Description
Review
Browne 'flourished around 1500', which means we don't even know his dates - but scholars have pinned him down to the household of John de Vere, the Earl of Oxford, who kept one of the grandest private chapels of the time, and where Browne was one of the chaplains.
There were royal connections: the Earl was godfather to Prince Arthur, heir to the English throne, who died in his teens in 1502...and it seems likely that Browne's Stabat iuxta, which depicts Mary in mourning at the foot of the cross, was written for Henry VII's wife Queen Elizabeth - sharing her grief at the loss of her son, the Prince of Wales and future king. It's scored for four tenors and two basses - which confines the vocal range of the work to a mere two octaves. But if you think Browne's emotional palette will be at all restricted, think again: the dense harmonies and imaginative textures are constantly surprising...and made very clear both by the vocal quality of the Tallis Scholars, and by director Peter Phillips' decision to perform these pieces at relatively high pitches.
We wouldnt have any of Browne's music were it not for the Eton Choirbook, which lists 93 works by different composers copied at the turn of the 16th century for use at Eton College. We may know almost nothing about John Browne, but his contemporaries held him in high regard; not only did the Eton Choirbook contain 15 of his works (more than almost any other composer), but pride-of-place at the start of the collection was given to Browne's O Maria salvatoris.
It's a remarkable piece of eight-part polyphonic writing that according to Peter Phillips has no precedent in European music at the time, and its opening phrases soar heavenwards at the end of the CD with breathtaking ease and accuracy. Phillips is spot on in his notes when he's trying to explain what gives Browne's music such impact; it's not just the innovation and imagination, but his emotional range...think Monteverdi rather than Palestrina, he reckons.
There have been more theatrically emotional recordings of Browne's masterpiece, his Stabat mater. But emotional understatement may have been a typically English quality even around 1500, and anyway the sheer beauty and crystalline perfection of these performances from the Tallis Scholars, with those high-flying treble lines so radiantly recorded, make this an unforgettable and richly rewarding experience.
John Browne's body may lie a-mouldering in some unmarked grave, but the reasons the experts consider him the greatest English composer of his time have never seemed more apparent than they do on this remarkable disc.
Like This? Try These:
Lalande: Music for the Sun King (Ex Cathedra)
de Rore: Missa Praeter rerum serium (Huelgas Ensemble)
Pergolesi: Marian Vespers (Choir of New College, Oxford) --Andrew McGregor
Find more music at the BBC This link will take you off Amazon in a new window
Review
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Customer Reviews
The Tallis Scholars have been one of the world’s greatest choirs for twenty-five years and more. This is one of their very finest discs – and that is really saying something. An absolute gem.
Particularly beautiful is the sheer commitment and the huge sonority that the ensemble produce - it almost sounds orchestral in its breadth and impact. Whether this music sounded anything like this originally is open to debate - it fact it probably sounded totally different - but I wonder if this music ever sounded so sonorous in its day. Whether the cultivation of such 'sonority' really originally belonged to the music, however, seems rather irrelevant compared to the sheer beauty of the sound that the Tallis Scholar make these days. They certainly take full advantage of Browne's writings, here represented in the form of five motets, with their rich scoring in up to a then hitherto unprecedented eight parts - Peter Phillips describes Browne's textures as being 'colossal'.
Little is known about John Browne - even his dates are unknown. He was active in the late 1400's - although scholars have further discovered he was employed in the household of John de Vere, the Earl of Oxford, who kept a grand private chapel at the time, and where Browne was one of the chaplains. It is also known that his contemporaries held him in high regard. The only reason for the survival of any of Browne's music is due to the Eton Choirbook, which lists 93 works by different composers copied at the turn of the 16th century for use at Eton College. All the music on this recording originate from the earlier folios of the Eton Choirbook, dating from about 1490 to 1500, whose index reveals that there were originally ten more pieces by Browne in the collection. Of these, five have been sadly lost, two more are incomplete, and three are too long to include on this disc.
If like me you tend to be tentative in exploring the relatively over-represented early English choral music coming out then at least in this instance the sheer power of the singing here overcomes any such concerns. The spectacular recorded sound quality sets new standards amongst Gimell recordings with an added dimension of sound characterized by wider soundstaging, remarkable dynamic range, plus more refined detail and transparency compared to any of their previous releases. In fact this is thoroughly audiophile quality sound.
Recommended.
The Tallis Scholars have been one of the world's greatest choirs for twenty-five years and more. This is one of their very finest discs - and that is really saying something. An absolute gem.
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Listmania!
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
