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12 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Amazon reviews are a funny old business. My experience has led me to believe that people only really say reviews are helpful if they award a product five stars, and that more moderate reviews are either overlooked or deemed unhelpful. Perhaps people see a helpful review as one which confirms a decision they have already made, and anything which might cause them to reconsider is just a nuisance. I don't know. But despite my desire for popular reviews, I'm not going to award five stars, and I have a good reason for it. However, if you want a disc of outstanding music sung with precision, beauty of line and great taste, then look no further. Morales was the first great master of Spanish music, setting the stage for a century of musical splendour to match the apogee of the nation's star on the world stage, and his writing is moving, understated, emotionally intense and exquisite throughout. The Lamentations are real masterpieces, and the other motets distinctive and no less well crafted. Moreover, the singing by the Brabant Ensemble is of the highest order, well blended, tasteful and possessing a fine tone.
So why only four stars? Well, for the simple reason that this disc is yet another beautifully performed selection of polyphonic choral music by a professional ensemble consisting mostly of singers who began their careers at Oxbridge colleges. And there's the rub: this is, sadly, nothing new. There are now dozens of ensembles out there (and I have commented in another review on the practice drawing on a relatively limited pool of singers to make up the bulk of Britain's professional choirs), each of which promises to perform unjustly neglected music, but I must admit they are pretty hard to tell apart. With the exception of the fantastically barmy i fagiolini, they perform the repertoire in a very safe way, one that fits our preconceptions of how the music "should" sound.
So here is my challenge to the directors of Britain's early music groups: do something new! Yes, performance styles have changed over the past three decades, but surely now it's time to do something really radical with these "early dots". Be imaginative, outrageous even, but please don't give us any more of this sort of performance.
So why only four stars? Well, for the simple reason that this disc is yet another beautifully performed selection of polyphonic choral music by a professional ensemble consisting mostly of singers who began their careers at Oxbridge colleges. And there's the rub: this is, sadly, nothing new. There are now dozens of ensembles out there (and I have commented in another review on the practice drawing on a relatively limited pool of singers to make up the bulk of Britain's professional choirs), each of which promises to perform unjustly neglected music, but I must admit they are pretty hard to tell apart. With the exception of the fantastically barmy i fagiolini, they perform the repertoire in a very safe way, one that fits our preconceptions of how the music "should" sound.
So here is my challenge to the directors of Britain's early music groups: do something new! Yes, performance styles have changed over the past three decades, but surely now it's time to do something really radical with these "early dots". Be imaginative, outrageous even, but please don't give us any more of this sort of performance.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
2 reviews
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Glorious music, performance and recording.
5 Feb 2009
Format:Audio CD
This ,as Stephen Rice points out in his notes, is his first venture,geographically, out of the repertoire after which his group is so specifically named.Significantly though, when he decided to highlight a composer outside the environs of Brabant, he chose one of exactly the same generation as Gombert, De Manchicourt, Crecquillon etc.In so doing he adds more artillery to the growing argument that this under-rated generation between Josquin and Palestrina has much to be sung about. How pertinent is introducing this Spanish composer to the view he seems to promote? I think I would answer that question with another: is Morales also under-rated? ...and the answer is , for me, a resounding yes. Morales is my favourite Spanish Renaissance composer and first listening to this disc was a pure joy to me from start to finish.I had already admired the Brabant Ensemble but I think it is here that they excel themselves most so far.It is evident that they really enjoy themselves , and the music gets a thorough , outright singing. The fervour of the singers increases at the right moments.There is brightness at the top of the register but not enough to distract from the delightful happenings underneath. Tuning, as far as I can hear it, is as near to perfect as I wouldn't be able to tell.This is possibly my best buy of last year.One fascinating thing I want to add is that the motet "Spem In Alium" sounded remarkably like Gombert to me even before I read Mr. Rice's excellent notes and found out that Gombert is a fellow suspect in its creation.It spews out false relations like most of Gombert (very untypical in Morales' output) but it was more the sense of relentless polyphony ,with difficulty to enjoy one moment because the next is just as good that aroused my suspicions.It could be by Morales,who was equally but differently brilliant(in my opinion),and who am I to argue with Stephen Rice? - but it doesn't matter, it is now in my own top three or four motets across the repertoire and enough reason alone to recommend the recording.Thank you to all concerned in it , Cristobal De Morales included.
6 of 8 people found the following review helpful
My First Polyphony
4 Oct 2010
Format:Audio CD
I cannot provide an educated review of this work, of the kind supplied above in particular and as supplied to similar works offered at Amazon in general, but it has changed my life for the better.
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