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Cristobal de MORALES Missa Si bona suscepimus
Phillippe Verdelot
Si bona suscepimus
Thomas Crequillon Andreas Christi
The Tallis Scholars/Peter Phillips
Gimell CDGIM 033 [56 mins]
Crotchet   AmazonUK   AmazonUS

Cristobal de Morales (c.1500-1553) began and ended his career in Spain, but worked in the Sistine Chapel Choir whilst Michelangelo was painting the Last Judgment there, basing his Missa Si bona suscepimus composed there upon the five-part motet by Phillippe Verdelot (fl.1520-50) of the same name, adding one more more part and 'intensifying the imitation and extending the polyphonic argument' (Peter Phillips) - - 'all the notes of Verdelot there, but buried in a far richer and more complex texture'. The CD is completed with a great eight-part motet of the Franco-Flemish Thomas Crequillon (d.1557), its solidity contrasting with the more fluid style of the Spaniard.

This is a satisfying sequence of early 16 C. choral music. The calm, euphonious and perfectly tuned singing of The Tallis Scholars is expertly recorded in the St Peter & Paul Church at Salle in Norfolk. The documentation is thorough, as always with Gimell, the texts are given in big, bold print and parallel translations into three languages.

Peter Grahame Woolf

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