Isaac - Missa De Apostolis [Original recording reissued]

The name Leonardo da Vinci (1452 - 1519) is known to almost everybody, even to those with little interest in art. Yet if you asked someone to name a contemporary composer few would be able to come up with a name. Those few who know of a comptemporary would probably name Josquin des Prez (c.1450 - 1521). Yet the composers of this time were artistically easily the equal of the painters such as Leonardo - who was almost certainly well accquainted with Isaac's music, for he was held in almost as much esteem as Josquin. And Josquin was to be hailed as the Michelangelo of music for centuries after his death, before eventually lapsing into semi-obscurity. Lovers of music of this period (the composers of the Prima Prattica or First Practice) love to advocate passionately on behalf of their personally favoured 'true genius' of this time, so rich was it with an abundance of inspired composers, to a degree perhaps unrivalled in any time in musical history. Is it indeed Josquin after all, who was certainly the most universally admired of his time? Or is it actually Johannes Ockeghem, or Jacob Obrecht, or Pierre de la Rue, or Nicolas Gombert - or even perhaps Alexander Agricola? As for me, well, I must admit to having a place in my heart for Heinrich Isaac (c.1450 - 1517). Yes, I have grown up with those Austro-German composers like Bach and Beethoven and have come to love music by countless other composers from several centuries but I can scarcely remember coming across a composer who left me so singularly overwhelmingly powerful an impression on me as this one. It even shook my previously unmovable faith stemming from a belief born of ignorance, that Bach was the singularly greatest of them all (is there such a thing?).

The opening of the Missa da Apostolis is beautiful but it is only once you reach the Santus and Agnus Dei that things take off to heights of such sublime inspiration that you can only hold your breath in disbelief. Other Renaissance composers have written canonic passages with church bell like effects like those on the words 'qui tollis' in the Agnus Dei but never has it sounded so sublime as when they toll here. My favorite amongst the motets is without doubt the Regina Caeli Laetare. I get goosebumps every time I hear the start of the resurrexit section - no matter how many times I listen. The final work here, Virgo Prudendissima, shows the sort of spectacularly grand monumentality that Isaac commanded more than any other composer of his time.

Of all of the thousands of records of thousands of works I have heard over the years, the compositional gems on this one CD stand out like a bright star in the night sky. The impact that Isaac leaves is so powerful that at times I have felt that this would be my choice for my one desert island CD. This is music of breathtaking grandeur and subtlety, yet of rich contrapunctal complexity - music of a sublime height and depth of a kind I rarely if ever recall having heard in any other composer of Isaac's time - or for that matter of any other. Words fail me - for I have no higher praise!

A recording to listen to at least once before you die.

--Heinrich Isaac--
Isaac is an often overlooked composer. Born in 1450, he was contemporary with greats such as Josquin des Pres, but vastly overshadowed by such contemporaries, even though during his lifetime, Isaac was often set in such company as a matter of course and conversation. Scholarship on Isaac is almost exclusively a German preserve, according to Phillips, which makes him lesser known in the English-speaking world, save to musicologists and die-hard fans. He was court composer to Emperor Maximilian I in Vienna in the late fifteenth/early sixteenth centuries. He lived in Vienna and Florence much of his life, tending to prefer Florence in the end. He died in 1517.

--Missa de Apostolis--
This mass is based on Gregorian chants taken from the Feast of the Apostles. The mass alternates between chant and polyphony through, as was the style in German composition at the time. The Credo was not set here, as the custom at the time was not to include it. Bouncing back and forth between melody and chant can be disconcerting, but Isaac pulls it off with great skill.

--Motets--
Some of Isaac's motets, according to Phillips, have a grandeur no other composer of the time could equal. `Optime pastor' and `Virgo prudentissima' are very strong celebratory motets; `Tota pulchra es' and `Regina caeli laetare' are Marian motets; `Resurrexi et adhuc tecum sum' is a setting for Easter Sunday. There is wide variation in voice-parts among the motets, but the influence of chant is unmistakable.

--Liner Notes--
Being internationally acclaimed, the Tallis Scholars' CDs typically present their commentary and texts in English, French, German and Italian (together with any Latin texts); that is true of this disc. The cover art also typically represents visual arts contemporary with the compositions - here it is a portrait of Emperor Maximilian I, by Albrecht Durer, a rough contemporary with Isaac. For some strange reason, the page 1 of the liner notes seems to be missing. The play list is repeated in Italian, French, and German, but the English list, and perhaps a few paragraphs in English notes, are missing.

--The Tallis Scholars--
The Tallis Scholars, a favourite group of mine since the first time I heard them decades ago, are a group dedicated to the performance and preservation of the best of this type of music. A choral group of exceptional ability, I have been privileged to see them many times in public, and at almost every performance, their singing seems almost like a spiritual epiphany for me, one that defies explanation in words. Directed by Peter Phillips, the group consists of a small number of male and female singers who have trained themselves well to their task.

Their recordings are of a consistent quality that deserve more than five stars; this particular disc of rare pieces by Heinrich Isaac is worthy of a place on the shelf of anyone who loves choral music, liturgical music or Gregorian chant, classical music generally, or religious music. It is remarkable, both in composition and performance. The original recording was made in 1991 in the church of St. Peter and St. Paul, Norfolk, one of their favourite recording sites.

I'm clearly in the minority, among reviewers whose opinions I respect, in finding this performance unsatisfying. Let your own ears decide. The axiom is: It's only as good as it sounds.

The route from Bruges to Prague in the Renaissance, musically speaking, ran through northern Italy. What I mean is that the great Franco-Flemish composers first established their hegemony in the city states of Florence, Ferrara, and Venice, from whence their influence traveled north over the Brenner Pass into Hapsburgia. Heinrich Isaac was a major player in that transmission, working and establishing a huge reputation in Italy before becoming one of the dominant musical figures in the court of Maximilian. There's a persistent rumor about Isaac in Early Music circles, that he had a wife in every port - specifically in both Innsbruck and Florence. I can't verify it, but his simple part-song "Innsbruck Ich muss dich lassen" is one of the most beautiful and heart-felt compositions of all time. Isaac was a very fine composer by any standard - the peer of Josquin and Brumel in both skill and inspiration. It's a huge shame that he has not been very well represented on recordings. Among his magnificent liturgical compositions, there are only six available CDs of his masses, and only the rarest and most expensive is truly excellent. That one is the Missa Paschalis, sung by Ensemble Officium. The same mass is offered by the Schola Cantorum Stuttgart. Missa Virgo Prudentissima has been recorded by the Muenchner Dommusik; Missa Carminum by Capella Antiqua Muenchen; Missa La Spagna by ensemble Odhecaton; and a mass for Maximilian by ensemble Hofcapelle.

The Tallis Scholars' performance of Isaac's Missa de Apostolis has some virtues and many flaws. Its greatest virtue is that it makes Isaac available, sung at a fully professional level. Its flaws are stylistic. This judgement reflects my musical taste, and hey, de gustibus non disputandum!

The fourteen singers of the Tallis Scholars are all highly skilled musicians, with mature understanding of performance practice. So I suspect that my dissatisfaction with this and other recordings by the Scholars focuses on the musical decisions made by the conductor Peter Phillips. Phillips hears polyphony "from the top down." That is, he invariably overweights the superius (soprano) voice, at the expense of the lower voices, yet Renaissance polyphonists built their polyphony from the tenor outward, granting expressive independence to all voices. The "bottom up" nature of Renaissance polyphony is evident from the music itself in score, and from explicit statements by contemporary theorists like Glareanus and Agricola. Want to try an experiment? Put this CD in your system, then go into another room and listen. You'll hear the sopranos declaiming lustily over a muddle of bland male timbres.

Phillips achieves this top-line dominance by using women's voices on the superius, but men's voices on the alto, tenor and bass. I strongly suspect that he transposes some of the music he selects upward, to suit the strongest part of his sopranos' ranges. In any case, his sopranos always sing with full expressive technique, while the other voices tend to sing without expression or independence, a flat and somber affect. Expressiveness is good! But in this polyphonic realm it has to be distributed to the full ensemble. Remember, please, that the typical choir of Isaac's era had the most mature and developed singers among the tenors and basses, while the higher parts were usually sung by boys. Those boys must have been quite skilled, but it's hard to imagine that boys' voices ever dominated the music in the manner of Peter Phillips's sopranos.

Phillips is also a "one tempo" conductor, and that tempo is mournfully slow. Renaissance theoreticians suggested that the "tactus" (the counting beat) of polyphony might be found from the pulse of the conductor; Phillips clearly has a pulse of about forty beats per minute. Not only is his tactus slow, but it's also monotonous. There's no reason, either historically or by way of the modern listener's ears, to justify such ponderous interpretations.

As I declared at the beginning of this review, many listeners may fiercely disagree with me, may find the strong soprano timbres thrilling, may consider the use of male countertenors in place of women's voices distasteful. All I can do is to suggest comparing the results. Listen to any Tallis Scholars CD in your collection, and then listen to a piece of similar music sung by The Clerks Group, or the Orlando Consort, or the Ensemble Gilles Binchois, or the Binchois Consort. If you still prefer the Tallis Scholars, well, ITA MISSA EST.

Added much later: a comment I've just received prompted me to listen to this performance again. I've decided that I set the bar too high and I've upgraded my rating by a star. I don't want to retract my criticisms of the Tallis Scholars here; what I wrote still seems appropriate. But sometimes I have to overlook my own expectations and just be grateful for the performance as it is. The Missa de Apostolis is a gorgeous composition, and this recording is the best we're likely ever to have a chance to hear.
I think I was too harsh in my critique of the "Hofkappele" ensemble's recording of music for Maximilian, also. They sing better, on the whole than the Tallis Scholars. They deserve another listening. But the really 'hot' vocal ensemble, performing music of Isaac's era, is Cinquecento. Get any one of their recordings, listen to it before and after one by the Tallis Scholars. I swear you'll hear the difference.