Although it’s employed as the overall title of the CD,
you won’t find a piece of music here actually entitled
Coeperunt
loqui - they began to speak - but the words form part of
the final work, the Tallis Pentecost Vespers respond,
Loquebantur
variis linguis - [the apostles] spoke in many different tongues.
I don’t suppose that many would concern themselves with
such pedantic matters nowadays, even at Cheltenham College, but
both
coeperunt and
loqui are oddities among Latin
verbs:
coepio (I begin) is seldom found in the present
tense, more often in the perfect, and
loquor (I speak)
is passive in form but active in meaning.
Having got that piece of pedantry out of the way, I should immediately
say that I was very impressed by this recording; it stands up
to the competition from professional groups much better than
I had expected. In that respect, it belongs in the same category
as the St Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh recording of Taverner’s
Missa
Corona spinea which impressed both John Quinn and myself
so much recently (Delphian DCD34023 - see
review and
review).
That Delphian recording was in direct competition with a superb
recording of the Taverner Mass from The Sixteen on Hyperion.
Perhaps wisely, the Cheltenham Choir begin with a somewhat neglected
work, Lassus’s shortest Mass, known as
Missa Venatorum or
Jaeger,
both titles signifying that it is a Hunters’ Mass, since
it was intended for performance on days when the court wished
to be off hunting. There seem to be only two other currently
available recordings of this work, one on the Regent label (REGCD297)
where it forms part of a concert of Lassus’s music sung
by York Minster Choir. I reviewed a 1988 recording by the Christ
Church Cathedral Choir directed by Stephen Darlington on Nimbus
NI5150 in my September, 2009, Download
Roundup -
coupled with another Mass and several motets.
The timings adopted by the Nimbus and Herald recordings are very
similar, except in the
Agnus Dei, where the new recording
respects the usual three-fold repetition and the Nimbus offers
a single-clause rendition, liturgically acceptable since Lassus
ends the clause with an oft-repeated
Miserere nobis -
have mercy upon us. Perhaps there were some keen huntsmen in
the Christ Church choir, eager to be off to their meet - but
perhaps not: in other respects the Oxford performance sounds
slightly more reverential than the rather more businesslike version
from Cheltenham.
I’m getting ahead of myself, however, in writing about
the
Agnus Dei first. The other sections are sung extremely
well, the manner perhaps a little more brisk than on Nimbus,
though that may be attributable to the different acoustics of
the Cheltenham College Chapel and Dorchester Abbey, where the
Christ Church Choir regularly made their recordings for Nimbus.
I don’t wish to imply that the Cheltenham performance is
brash -
brisk and
brusque may be cognates linguistically,
but the new version is brisk without being at all brusque. Heard
on its own, without side-by-side comparison with the Nimbus -
always a dubious practice - their version of the
Agnus Dei sounds
perfectly prayerful. Both performances are good in their slightly
different ways - perhaps the businesslike manner of the Cheltenham
version slightly the more appropriate to this short work - and
both recordings are good.
Music by Lassus and Tallis frames the programme, with Lassus’
Magnificat
septimi toni the penultimate work. It’s one of three
Magnificats included
on the CD, so the programme also gives a useful taste of three
of the many different plainsong tones for this Vespers canticle.
Here again, as far as I am aware, there is only one rival recording
- again on the same Regent CD as the
Missa Venatorum/Jäger.
I haven’t heard that recording, but I can’t imagine
that the performance could be preferable to that of the Cheltenham
Choir.
Two of the three Tallis works face considerably more competition,
including versions from professional groups. The Tallis Scholars
on Gimell perform
O sacrum convivium and
Loquebantur on
their 2-for-1 set
The Tallis Scholars Sing Tallis (CDGIM203).
This time the Cheltenham performances are a little slower and
more meditative than the Scholars. Heard immediately after the
Gimell performances, they might be held to sound a little too
slow - after all, the Tallis Scholars are not noted for rushing
headlong - but the tempi make perfectly good sense within their
own context. The performance of
Loquebantur by Armonico
Consort on a recent Signum recording (SIGCD180) is slower still;
on paper they may seem unduly slow, but I didn’t find them
so in this work, though I did elsewhere on that CD.
In any event, the Cheltenham performers are nowhere near in the
same slow league, falling between the times on the Gimell and
Signum recordings but closer to the former and to The Sixteen
in an all-Tallis programme on Chandos CHAN0513, in spirit as
well as in tempo. Closest of all to the Cheltenham performance
are Chapelle du Roi under Alistair Dixon on Volume 4 of their
complete Tallis for Signum (SIGCD010), a series of recordings
which have become my joint benchmarks for that composer, alongside
the Tallis Scholars, in recent years.
Chapelle du Roi include Tallis’s
Nunc dimittis à 5,
a work probably dating from the 1540s, on Volume 2 (SIGCD002).
Here again the Cheltenham singers linger a little longer than
Alistair Dixon’s; I could happily live with both, but one
reason for investing in the Signum set - on CD or as downloads
from classicsonline.com or passionato.com - would be the ability
to compare this Latin setting, dating from a time when the full
effects of the reformation had yet to be felt, with Tallis’s
much briefer but equally effective English setting on Volume
6 (SIGCD022). Once again the programme for the Herald CD is well
chosen in that it includes the Latin
Nunc dimittis, a
work of which there are few rival versions in the current catalogue
- and more importantly in that the performance is so good.
If you had aspirations to be internationally known in the sixteenth
century, you needed a Greek, Latin or Italian name: if you are
looking for other recordings of Lassus, for example, be aware
that he was also known as Lasse and Lasso. Thus the English composer
Cooper Italianised himself as Coperario and the Lutheran theologian
Johann Heussgen or Husschein (house-light) went one better and
made up the pseudo-Greek name Johannes œcolampadius. The
composer Hieronymus Schultheiss (judge or magistrate) chose a
Latin name, again a translation of the original, Prætorius.
Please note that this is not the more famous Michael Prætorius,
composer of the famous Dances from
Terpsichore, but a
talented younger, possibly distantly related, namesake.
His
Magnificat quinti toni has been recorded in a fine
performance from The Cardinall’s Musick directed by Andrew
Carwood on a CD of Prætorius’ Magnificats and Motets
(Hyperion CDA67669). The Cheltenham recording, however, is not
in direct competition with the Hyperion: Carwood intersperses
the Christmas motets,
Joseph, lieber Joseph and
In
dulci jubilo which originally accompanied the
Magnificat.
Johan van Veen was not entirely convinced by the Hyperion CD,
but he thought the
Magnificat quinti toni one of the highlights
- see
review.
Though, like JV, I have some reservations - I would have preferred
the music to be sung by a choir rather than a small ensemble
- I nevertheless recommend the Hyperion recording to all those
who love the music of this period.
Ffinch omits the Christmas additions, making the performance
suitable for listening all year round. The work is written for
two choirs, each of four parts, much in the manner of the fashionable
Venetian music, though a little more intimate than some of Prætorius’ music
or that of his model, the Gabrielis. If anything, the Cheltenham
Choir make it sparkle a little more than The Cardinall’s
Musick.
We return to Tudor England for Sheppard’s Epiphany motet,
Reges
Tharsis - the Kings of Tarshish and the Isle shall offer
gifts. The Herald recording comes into contest with The Sixteen
here, on one of two inexpensive 2-CD Hyperion Dyad sets of Sheppard’s
music, or, more inexpensively still, on the 10-CD budget set
The
Golden Age of English Polyphony, my Bargain of the Month
and of the Year 2009 (CDS44401/10 - see
review and
review by
Ralph Moore). The Cheltenham Choir take the music a little more
slowly than The Sixteen - perhaps their Kings are a trifle slow,
but I enjoyed the performance.
Morales’
Magnificat primi toni is different in manner
from the Prætorius setting but no less impressive. This
is not a showy work and I think that it benefits from the treatment
which it receives from the Brabant Ensemble on a Hyperion recording
which I recommended (CDA67694 - see
review).
I suggested in that review that Morales perhaps needs to be presented
in bright colours; whereas the Cheltenham recording brightens
the Prætorius, their Morales is just a little sub-fusc,
but they more than compensate in Peter Philips’ exultant
Easter motet,
Ecce vicit Leo, celebrating the victory
of the Lion of Judah.
If you have yet to encounter the music of this recusant who spent
most of his active life in continental Europe, I recommend that
you do so, though his choral music is sparsely represented in
the catalogue - there are more recordings of his keyboard music,
including that by Colin Booth on Soundboard SBCD992, which I
recommended some time ago - see
review.
There is a wonderful budget-price CD of his motets on Hyperion
Helios, sung by the Winchester Cathedral Choir with The Parley
of Instruments directed by David Hill (CDH55254). You will duplicate
Ecce
vicit Leo, in a slightly more festive performance even than
the Cheltenham version, but that’s a small price to pay
for these excellent performances of an unfairly neglected composer.
If only he had stayed in England, written some music for the
Anglican Church and had his Roman loyalties tolerated as those
of Tallis and Byrd were.
There is another programme of Philips’ music (Currende
on Accent ACC8862D), which I haven’t been able to hear,
though I note that the time there for
Ecce vicit Leo is
almost exactly the same as on the new Herald recording. That
recording is listed on the passionato.com website as available
for download, but it wasn’t yet actually on stream when
I checked - they were still completing their major overhaul.
Another programme of Philips’ 5-part works - not duplicating
Ecce
vicit Leo - is available from Naxos and this can be downloaded
from classicsonline.com or passionato.com or streamed via the
Naxos Music Library. I have heard and can recommend this recording.
(
Cantiones Sacræ Quinis Vocibus, Tudor Consort/Peter
Walls, 8.555056).
The Herald recording is good throughout - slightly recessed but
not unduly so; at just the right distance to suggest that one
is listening slightly back from the front pews.
The notes in the booklet give the date of the Prætorius
Magnificat as
1589; I’m not sure how this date was obtained, since the
work is usually held to be a late masterpiece, postdating the
works which were published in 1602. Otherwise Andrew Plant’s
commentary is short but to the point. The texts are included,
with idiomatic translations. It seems odd, however, to preserve
the mid-verse colons from the Prayer Book versions of the
Magnificat and
Nunc
dimittis, since these were intended to indicate how they
should be chanted in English and have no relevance to the Latin
settings sung on the CD.
Despite the intense and professional competition in some of the
pieces, this recording can hold up its head in the most distinguished
company. I’m delighted to hear such fine performances from
such a young and recently-established group. Long may the independent
labels bring us such fine challengers to the established ensembles
as this on Herald, the Taverner on Delphian and several recent
recordings by The Queen’s College, Oxford, on Guild - see
my review of
Cæli Porta (Guild GMCD7323).
As I was about to close, I read another review of this recording
which, while generally very appreciative, draws attention to
a few tuning problems and the over-exposure of the male voices
in the
Sanctus of the Lassus Mass. I can honestly say
that I hardly noticed either of these problems and that they
really did not interfere with my enjoyment of this recording.
Yes, the opening of the
Sanctus is a little underpowered
and tentative, but so is the Christ Church version on Nimbus
to some extent. More power to the arms of all concerned in producing
this recording.
Brian Wilson
Cheltenham College Chamber Choir/Alexander
Ffitch 
