Reflection; Tudor anthems and Motets HTGCD212 HTGCD216 [JS]: Classical Music Reviews

The Choir of Clare College may not be as celebrated in the popular imagination as those of King’s or St John’s. Its use of mixed voices may rule it out as far as some church musicians are concerned. However, their bright sound and imaginative and alert response to the music put them right up at the top as far as I am concerned.

The College has had a mixed voice choir since 1971. The period from 1979 to 2010 during which Timothy Brown was its Director was one of particularly high quality and during this time they made many excellent discs which fully deserve reissue. Heritage have done the Choir few favours in the presentation of the present discs but in terms of quality of music-making and recording they are of considerable interest.

Reflection is in some ways the odder of the two. It comprises a mixture of unaccompanied and accompanied music - although no organist is named - including not only Tudor figures but such later British composers as Purcell, Attwood, Goss, Elgar, and three others who do not really fit in to the general theme of the disc. The pieces by these “interlopers” – Bach, Mozart and Franck – are the least satisfactory items here. The use of organ accompaniment in place of the original orchestral versions in the Mozart and Bach items is particularly harmful, making their character much less individual. Whilst these are by no means unmusical or technically inadequate as performances it is hard to see anyone wanting this disc for them when so many recordings of these pieces are available in the forms that their composers intended.

The other items however are another matter entirely. Somewhat to my surprise it was the later British items that made an especial impact. The names of Goss and Attwood in Service Lists do not usually tend to make my blood run faster, but as sung here, with a very winning combination of care for the longer line and care over detail, they are quite magical in their impact. All too often recordings by Cathedral or College Choirs tend to play safe, avoiding anything that might be or be thought wrong. That is not the case here. Admittedly these may not be especially technically demanding works but they do respond well to the understanding treatment that they get here.

Music from the Tudor period or just after occupies just over half of this disc and the whole of the other. The choir’s abilities are shown even more here. There is some overlap with five items common to both discs although I am unclear as to whether they are in fact all identical recordings. Understandably this might put some potential purchasers off buying the two which would be a pity when there is so much that is so good on both. If you are able to hear them before purchase the sheer ebullience of Gibbons’ “Hosanna to the Son of David” might convince you that the Tudor disc is better, but then the sheer beauty of John Sheppard’s “In pace” might suggest Reflection as the one to choose. Both discs have an excellent mixture with music of surprisingly different character, although in the case of Reflection this is more a matter of musical style than of overall character. It is also subject to the few disappointing items I mentioned earlier.

It is however very regrettable that these discs are let down by the absence of texts and translations and of notes giving more than a general historical context for each composer. It is clear that all of these composers cared deeply about the meaning of the words they were setting, so that not to be able to follow them is a serious disadvantage. Most of the items on the Tudor disc are included in the Oxford Book of Tudor Anthems (ISBN 0-19-353325-1) which has admirable notes about each piece. Careful browsing of the Internet will produce information, not always very accurate, about the contents of both discs. It would have taken little trouble for Heritage to have made this available to the listener with the discs. I hope that these lapses in presentation will nonetheless not be sufficient to put potential purchasers off two otherwise very distinguished discs.

John Sheppard

Tudor Anthems and Motets is also reviewed by John Quinn - BARGAIN OF THE MONTH

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