This Gemini reissue offers
wonderful value in presenting the contents of three separate
LPs. It would probably sweep the board in this price-bracket
were it not for the fact that it comes into very strong
competition from a 2-for-1 Gimell reissue of the Tallis
Scholars in the
Missa Papæ Marcelli and
Missa
brevis and from the Oxford Camerata on Naxos in the
Missa
Puer natus est.
The 6-part
Missa Ave
Maria first appeared in 1982 complete with plainsong
propers (ASD3955), an unusual procedure then and one
which earned the recording a good deal of praise, especially
as its chant followed 16
th-century practice. Paradoxically,
though this is now more normal practice, considerations
of space mean that it now reappears shorn of those plainsong
interpolations. Now, as then, it is a comparatively
neglected work – only one current rival, I believe, on
Hyperion, of which more below.
The
Missa Hodie Christus
natus est, the two motets which conclude CD1 and
the four which open CD2 are taken from an LP which appeared
four years earlier, in 1978 (ASD3559). Re-mastered in
1991, it subsequently appeared on LP, cassette and CD
on the EMI Eminence label, the latter in ADD form, CD-EMX2098
(CDM7 64045 2). I bought that Eminence CD long ago on
impulse and never seriously regretted the purchase.
The Willcocks performance
of
Missa Papæ Marcelli was (is?) coupled with The
Fauré
Requiem and
Pavane on an Italian EMI
Red Line recording, which my colleague Christopher Howell
mentions in his review of another King’s recording of the
Fauré, under Philip Ledger, on Classics for Pleasure (CFP
3 75906 2 – see
review). CH
hoped that EMI would issue the contents of that Red Line
CD as a GROC; in a sense, they have gone one better in
reissuing the
Marcellus Mass as part of this budget-price
2-CD compilation.
These recordings of
Missa
Papæ Marcelli and the
Missa brevis appeared
on EMI’s mid-price label in 1971 (HQS1237) – perhaps
EMI thought the music too esoteric to appeal at full
price, though Willcocks himself had contributed to making
Palestrina’s music better known and better performed
with his Argo recording of 1964, containing the
Stabat
mater,
Hodie beata virgo,
Senex puerum
portabat,
Magnificat a 8 and
Litaniæ de
beata Maria (ZRG5398). Surprisingly, that now-classic
performance currently available with the Allegri
Miserere on
Decca Originals 466 373 2, didn’t receive too warm a
welcome from the reviewers when it first appeared or
when it was reissued in the 1970s.
To remind ourselves of
the first appearances of these recordings on LP, with ASDs
costing £3.99 in 1978, is salutary. Despite the rampant
inflation of the intervening years, which would probably
convert that £3.99 to over £30 at least, the recording
now reappears on a 2-CD set almost three times the length
of an LP, at little more than twice the original price.
The only recording of
the
Missa Hodie Christus natus est for comparison
in 1978 was on a Supraphon LP with the Czech Philharmonic
Chorus under Veselka. I don’t remember ever hearing that
particular Veselka recording, but I do remember – even
owned briefly on CD – some of his other recordings of late
medieval and renaissance music; I remember them well enough
to know that the Ledger was a vast improvement.
More recently we have
had recordings from the Gabrieli Consort/Paul McCreesh
(1994, currently available only on DVD 0734361), The Oxford
Camerata/Jeremy Summerly (Naxos 8.550836) and Westminster
Cathedral Choir/Martin Baker (CDA67396), the last of these
also containing the related motet and three of the other
motets on the Ledger recording. Unfortunately, I cannot
track MusicWeb reviews of any of these other recordings,
but they have all been generally well received in other
quarters.
How do these Willcocks
and Ledger recordings stand up after thirty years? Surprisingly
well, in fact. Despite considerable advances in scholarship
and performance, my only reservations remain those which
were expressed by reviewers on their original appearances,
namely that King’s sound a little too placid, a little
too concerned with beauty of diction and tone, perhaps
even a little tame by comparison with some of the more
full-blooded interpretations which have appeared since.
I’ve already indicated
the strong competition from the Tallis Scholars in the
Marcellus Mass
and the
Missa brevis. Good as the Willcocks performances
are, the Tallis Scholars are even better. This is their
first, analogue recording of the more famous work; some
may prefer the later version on
Live in Rome, where
it’s coupled with the
Stabat mater,
Magnificat
primi toni, etc., and the Allegri
Miserere (CDGIM994 – see
review in
my December 2008 Download Roundup). That 1994 recording
is also available on DVD: GIMDP903 – see my
review and
that of
John
France.
Both JF and I made
Live
in Rome Recording of the Month, but I’m not going
to get into arguments now about whether the analogue
or the digital version is the better – I’ll leave price
and coupling to decide, apart from saying that I certainly
wasn’t put off by the applause on the live version, as
some reviewers have been. It’s the analogue version
on CDGIM204 that is directly competitive with the Gemini
reissue and I have to say that, were I trying to decide
which one to plump for, it would be the Gimell.
In the
Missa brevis,
the Tallis Scholars’ slightly faster tempi work well. I
could live happily with either but my marginal preference
is for the more incisive Gimell version.
Competition is particularly
fierce in the
Missa Papæ Marcelli. This time the
boot is on the other foot: Willcocks’ tempi are faster
in every section – surprisingly so when one considers that
the King’s acoustic usually lends itself to slower tempi. Normally
I prefer to have Palestrina taken at a fairly brisk pace,
without too much lingering along the way, and one of my
favourite recordings of the
Marcellus Mass is slightly
brisker even than the Willcocks. Pro Cantione Antiqua
under Bruno Turner, on a 1978 ASV recording, now available
at super-budget price on Regis RRC1025, takes just 30:53
against Willcocks’ 32:56 and the Tallis Scholars’ 36:49. Nevertheless,
I never once felt that Peter Phillips was dragging the
tempo on the Gimell version, though he is somewhat faster
even than Willcocks on
Live in Rome (32:22).
Now that the wonderful
story of Palestrina’s writing the
Missa Papæ Marcelli to ‘save’ polyphony
in the teeth of opposition at the Council of Trent is no
longer valid, it’s no longer necessary to play down the
more elaborate aspects of its polyphony by taking it fast. (Not
that I wish to suggest that either Willcocks or Turner
is perfunctory, except, perhaps occasionally, in the King’s
Kyrie.) I
sometimes append tables of comparative tempi and was planning
to do so here, but this is a case of taking each interpretation
on its own considerable merits.
Both Gemini and Gimell
sets combine analogue and digital tracks but both recordings
still sound very well. The dreaded King’s acoustic, which
has led to many of their recordings being made elsewhere,
is hardly in evidence on Gemini. The Gimell recordings
were made in two of their favourite locations, Merton College,
Oxford, and Salle Church, Norfolk.
The notes which accompany
the Gemini set are minimal, the Gimell rather more fulsome. Gimell
offer the texts, EMI don’t – an important consideration,
though, of course, texts and translations of the ordinary
of the Mass are easily come by. The presentation of the
Gemini set is attractive, apart from the fact that one
CD is in a lurid orange colour and the other in muddy brown;
that of the Gimell, with reproductions of Michelangelo’s
sibyls from the Sistine Chapel, is excellent.
The Regis/Turner CD is
stupendous value (around £4.50 in the UK) and it offers
very competitive performances of
Missa Papæ Marcelli and
Missa
Assumpta est Maria, both included on the Gimell set. At
slightly less than twice that price for two CDs, the Gemini
is even better value and you could hardly go wrong in buying
it. The Gimell set comes at a slightly higher price but
is still a notable bargain; it can also be downloaded from
Gimell’s website in decent 320k mp3 sound for £7.99 or
in excellent CD-quality sound for £9.99, complete with
all the notes and liners. You’ll be hard pressed to find
a download of the Gemini on offer that isn’t more expensive
than buying the CDs.
If you prefer boys’ voices
on the top line, or if you must have the
Missa Hodie
Christus natus est and
Missa Ave Maria as part
of the deal, you have no choice but to buy the two well-filled
Gemini CDs, with very little cause for regret. I’d have
given this set the thumbs-up accolade if it hadn’t been
for the keen competition. I’ve listened to these King’s
performances with pleasure, but I’ve listened to the Tallis
Scholars’ versions with something closely akin to rapture.
If you opt for the Gimell
CDs, you’ll also have excellent performances of
Missa
Assumpta est Maria and
Missa sicut lilium inter
spinea and you can add
Missa Hodie Christus natus
est and Lassus’s
Missa Bell’ Amfitrit’ alterna inexpensively
from the recommendable Oxford Camerata recording on Naxos
8.550836. Then, or later, you could add the Westminster
Cathedral version of
Missa Ave Maria, coupled with
Missa
de beata Virgine on Hyperion CDA66364 – and still have
change from the £30 which was my conservative estimate
of the present-day value of the £3.99 which a single LP
would have cost in 1978.
Brian Wilson