Not long ago I
reviewed
very enthusiastically a CD of choral
music by a wide variety of composers
performed by Laudibus and Mike Brewer.
Now they give us a disc devoted
solely to the music of Vaughan Williams,
the fiftieth anniversary of whose
death is being marked this year.
Let’s not beat
about the bush. This disc is a corker!
The choir that Mike Brewer uses
here is somewhat smaller than was
the case on the previous disc five
sopranos and four each of altos,
tenors and basses. Writing of their
previous recital I referred to "the
assurance and collective virtuosity
of Laudibus" and I went on
to comment that "as well as
the technical excellence of the
singing a palpable sense of commitment
and enthusiasm comes across."
Every word of that verdict is supported
by this new release.
The Mass in
G minor stands, together with
the ‘Tallis’ Fantasia, as
RVW’s great tribute to the Tudor
music he so much admired. Written
for liturgical use – though its
first performance was as a concert
work – it drew from the composer
some magnificent music and wonderful
choral sonorities. The Mass has
received a number of fine recordings
over the years but this present
account is up there with the best
of them. The scoring is for double
choir and SATB soloists. With just
seventeen singers in the choir Laudibus
may seem numerically light and it’s
interesting to note, for example,
that on their 1991 recording the
Holst Singers comprised thirty-nine
voices (see review).
But a church or cathedral choir
singing the piece might field similar
numbers to Laudibus in the lower
three voices and though a cathedral
choir would certainly have a good
number of trebles the purity, accuracy
and sheer quality of sound that
the Laudibus sopranos produce more
than compensates for any shortage
of numbers.
The relatively
small size of the choir – and the
superb recorded sound – pays dividends,
I find, in terms of textural clarity.
I don’t think I’ve ever been quite
so aware before of the way in which
RVW uses the two choirs and the
soloists to vary the textures, just
as he does in the ‘Tallis’ Fantasia.
This clarity is achieved without
recourse to any unnatural closeness
in the microphone setting. Indeed,
here and throughout the recital
the resonant acoustic of All Hallows
Church is caught most beautifully
and it is used, as it should be,
to enhance the music. I’ve referred
to the relatively small choir that’s
used. However, there’s no lack of
punch and zest in exuberant passages,
such as "Laudamus te"
in the Gloria. But in the same movement
the precision and the weighting
of the quiet chords at "Et
in terra pax" is just as impressive.
The control in the section of the
Credo beginning "Et incarnatus"
is quite outstanding – hear "passus
et sepultus est". Laudibus
provides a fine solo quartet, especially
the ethereally pure soprano Anne
Marie Cullum, and their work in
the Credo and elsewhere consistently
gives pleasure.
Mike Brewer clearly
has a very fine feel indeed for
this work and he’s communicated
that to his singers who respond
with freshness and commitment. The
reading has urgency even when the
music is reflective – by that I
don’t mean that the music is pushed
too hard at all but one always has
a welcome sense of forward movement.
There’s only one point when I’m
slightly uncomfortable with Brewer’s
approach. At the start of the Agnus
Dei every note is separately
articulated and the result sounds
just a little jerky. I can’t recall
hearing it done this way before
and certainly a more "traditional",
smoother approach is taken by the
Elora Festival Singers (see review),
by the Holst Singers, and on the
superb version by the Corydon Singers
(Hyperion CDA66076). This is a relatively
minor point, however, and it certainly
doesn’t detract from the overall
impression that this is a very fine
recording indeed of the Mass.
The rest of the
programme is equally fine and judiciously
mixes the familiar and the less
well known. The masterly Three
Shakespeare Songs are justly
renowned. Laudibus turn in a wonderful
performance. There’s lightness and
delicacy in ‘Full Fathom Five’ and
a real sense of mystery is imparted
at the start. Here RVW’s evocative
and strange harmonies come across
beautifully but later on, at "Hark
now I hear them", Brewer makes
the music really vivid and exciting.
The grave beauty of ‘The Cloud-Capp’d
Towers’ is captured superbly – what
a rapt setting this is! - and all
in all this performance of the Songs
is of similar quality to that of
the Mass.
The Three Elizabethan
Part Songs are among the composer’s
earliest works and I can’t recall
hearing them before. Unsurprisingly
they don’t have the blazing originality
of some of the other works in the
programme but they’re well worth
hearing, especially when they’re
done as well as is the case here.
At the other end of the chronological
spectrum RVW’s mastery is everywhere
apparent in the later works, The
Souls of the Righteous, Silence
and Music and the particularly
impressive Prayer to the
Father of Heaven. The haunting
setting of Ca’ the Yowes
is sensitively done and if the uncredited
tenor soloist can’t quite match
the plangent fluency of Ian Partridge
(see review
and also on EMI 50999 2 16155 2)
he still sings very well. (The uncredited
tenor has since been confirmed as
Ben Thapa of G4 renown.)
This is an extremely
impressive disc, with a marvellous
account of the Mass in G
minor at its heart. For me,
the Corydon Singers still set the
benchmark for this work but Laudibus
run them very close indeed and in
terms of clarity of texture they
even surpass them in some respects.
I strongly suspect that the Corydon
Singers is a bigger choir comprising
professional singers. Choice may
be dictated by coupling and the
Corydon’s recording is coupled with
the glorious Requiem by Howells.
If you want an all-Vaughan Williams
disc, however, this Laudibus offering
will take some beating. The contents
of the programme have been chosen
shrewdly and the execution is flawless,
confirming the impression from their
earlier CD that Laudibus is a choir
to be reckoned with. The documentation
is excellent and a special word
of praise must go to producer Paul
Baxter and engineer Beth Mackay
who have captured these exquisite
performances in sound of luminous
clarity and great presence. This
CD is an outstanding celebration
of RVW in this anniversary year
John Quinn
Laudibus/Mike Brewer 
