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Product details
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Track Listings
| 1. Fant in d - Patrick Russill |
| 2. Mass: Kyrie |
| 3. Mass : Gloria |
| 4. Mass: Credo |
| 5. Mass: Sanctus |
| 6. Mass: Agnus Dei |
| 7. Voluntary - Patrick Russill |
| 8. Mass: Kyrie |
| 9. Mass: Gloria |
| 10. Mass: Credo |
| 11. Mass: Sanctus |
| 12. Mass: Agnus Dei |
| 13. Fant in C - Patrick Russill |
| 14. Mass: Kyrie |
| 15. Mass: Gloria |
| 16. Mass: Credo |
| 17. Mass: Sanctus |
| 18. Mass: Agnus Dei |
Product Description
BBC Music Magazine
The three Latin Masses Byrd produced for the English recusant community in the 1590s reveal a strong continental influence through textual highlights that emphasise the significance of individual words and phrases. The Tallis Scholars respond to this repertoire with lively tempi and a high emotional charge that boldly underline its urgent intensity of feeling. These new performances from The Cardinall's Musick release the music's native expressive potential with comparable tonal balance and vocal precision but greater emotional poise.
For example, the ensemble sings the Mass for Four Voices a third lower than the Scholars, disposing the parts for ATBarB instead of SATB. And, although this creates a darker-toned effect overall, the increased contrapuntal clarity in the inner voices has real virtue, most notably in the colourfully descriptive account of Christ's crucifixion and resurrection at the heart of the Credo. The situation is reversed in the Mass for Three Voices where The Cardinall's Musick chooses the three upper voices instead of the lower ones, its serenely pure vocalisation exploiting the Fitzalan Chapel's vividly clear acoustic to enhance this piece's absorbing intimacy.
The Tallis Scholars gain in brilliance in the Mass for Five Voices from sharper pitch and more reverberant recording. By contrast, The Cardinall's Musick's lithe counterpoint and richly blended chording persuasively point up Byrd's potently expressive musical enhancements of the text, its sensitivity to weight allowing the score's climaxes to emerge naturally. Meanwhile, Patrick Russill's nimble-fingered virtuosity and well-chosen registration in the organ solos that introduce each Mass complete an excellent programme.
Performance *****
Sound *****
© BBC Music Magazine 2000
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
If there is any fault with this disc I can't find it. I have owned it for years now and I still play it regularly and with immense pleasure. It is the fifth volume of The Cardinall's Musick's Byrd Edition (currently up to Volume 12 at the time of writing this). Every disc in the series is a gem and this one is one of the very best.
Byrd's three Mass settings are a wonderfully beautiful statement of faith by one of England's truly great composers - a Catholic in Elizabeth's militantly Protestant England. They were written to be sung in secret in private houses and the Three- and Four-Voice Masses in particular have a very personal, intimate feel. The overall effect is simply lovely, particularly in these performances.
The Cardinall's Musick are now well established as one of the world's finest Renaissance vocal ensembles, and this disc shows why. They have a beautiful, resonant sound, flawless intonation and a wonderful empathy with the music, bringing out both its sheer loveliness and its relationship to the text with a consummate skill of which the listener is never consciously aware, and leaving us with the feeling of a truly beautiful, profound musical experience.
This disc comes with extremely interesting and scholarly notes and at a very reasonable price. If you're looking for somewhere to start with William Byrd you couldn't do better than this disc in my view, and even if you already have recordings of these masses (as I did when I bought it) I'd recommend it very warmly. It is simply sublime.
Byrd's three Mass settings are a wonderfully beautiful statement of faith by one of England's truly great composers - a Catholic in Elizabeth's militantly Protestant England. They were written to be sung in secret in private houses and the Three- and Four-Voice Masses in particular have a very personal, intimate feel. The overall effect is simply lovely, particularly in these performances.
The Cardinall's Musick are now well established as one of the world's finest Renaissance vocal ensembles, and this disc shows why. They have a beautiful, resonant sound, flawless intonation and a wonderful empathy with the music, bringing out both its sheer loveliness and its relationship to the text with a consummate skill of which the listener is never consciously aware, and leaving us with the feeling of a truly beautiful, profound musical experience.
This disc comes with extremely interesting and scholarly notes and at a very reasonable price. If you're looking for somewhere to start with William Byrd you couldn't do better than this disc in my view, and even if you already have recordings of these masses (as I did when I bought it) I'd recommend it very warmly. It is simply sublime.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
The choral music of Tudor England includes some absolute gems. William Byrd's Masses are among them. Perhaps not everyone's cup of tea as there is a lack of drama, something that had not transferred itself from secular music to sacred. To me, they seem to represent a half-way house between Gregorian chant and the Baroque composers. Having said that, they have an ethereal, placid beauty, which is awesome to listen to. Dim the lights, sit in your listening chair and put this on - and you will be transported back to another place and time. The quality of the recording is excellent.
I have had the Tallis Scholars' version for some time. I always thought the Tallis Scholars hard to beat. Which is better? They are both wonderful! It is an insult to music-making of this quality to try to categorise it as "good" and "less good". I have to have them both.
I have had the Tallis Scholars' version for some time. I always thought the Tallis Scholars hard to beat. Which is better? They are both wonderful! It is an insult to music-making of this quality to try to categorise it as "good" and "less good". I have to have them both.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
The Cardinall's Music & Andrew Carwood do a superb job here. For me this is probably the choice over the Hilliard ensemble. There may be those who regard it as just a bit too precise, and almost without any feeling, but somehow this gives this recording an edge for me.
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