I was going to
write that the Cardinall’s Musick complete Byrd series
was continuing apace, except that eleven volumes produced
between 1996 and February 2009 doesn’t quite qualify for
that adverb. Originally issued by ASV on their Gaudeamus
label, the project switched to Hyperion with Volume 10
in 2006. Inspired by Michael Greenhalgh’s detailed and
appreciative
review of
that tenth volume, which he made a
Recording of the
Month, I asked Hyperion to include it with my review
copy of Volume 11. Not only do I fully agree with the
accolade for Volume 10, I see no reason to withhold it
from Volume 11.
It is surely not
accidental that many of the pieces in the three books of
Cantiones
sacræ refer to trials and tribulations, or call for
or look forward to better times, and there are several
examples on these two volumes.
CDA67568
track 2,
Tribulatio proxima est – tribulation
is nigh and there is none to help;
tr. 3,
Apparebit in finem – there shall appear
at the end ... one who is coming and who will not be slow
CDA67653
tr.3,
Miserere mei – have mercy upon
me, O God;
tr.4,
Circumdederunt me – my foes have surrounded
me;
tr.7,
Exsurge ... Domine – arise
and sleep not, O Lord ...
Though an honoured
composer for the Chapel Royal, whose Great Service and
Second Service more or less set the tone for Anglican music – conservative
yet reformed – Byrd, in common with his fellow Catholic
recusants, longed for the restoration of the old faith
or, at least, greater tolerance of it. His private thoughts
are expressed in some of the pieces on the Chandos recording
The
Caged Byrd (I Fagiolini on CHAN0609). Look especially
at the frustration of the words in
Why do I use my paper,
inke and penne? (tr.8 of the Chandos disc) or the settings
of verses from the psalm
Super flumina Babylon – ‘by
the waters of Babylon we sat and wept ... how shall we
sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?’ which he exchanged
with Philippe de Monte (tracks 9 and 10 of the Chandos
CD).
I Fagiolini, like
The Cardinall’s Musick, conclude their CD with
Laudibus
in sanctis but their time of 4:55 is rather brisker
than the 5:44 on the Hyperion recording. Both performances
are very good, with the Hyperion just having the edge. Both
convey the sense of dignified grief in such pieces as
Tribulatio
proxima est (CDA67568, tr.2) and
Quomodo cantabimus (Chandos,
tr.10) and of restrained exuberation in
Laudibus in
sanctis (Chandos tr.15, CDA67568, tr.16).
Volume 11 concentrates
on music associated with St Peter – his role as first Shepherd
of the Church (
Tu es pastor ovium, tr.2), his miraculous
escape from prison (
Nunc scio vere, tr.9 – the Introit
and part of the Lesson for Mass on the feast of SS Peter
and Paul) and his designation as the Rock on which Jesus
would build His Church (
Tu es Petrus, tr.11 – part
of the Gospel for the feast).
Byrd’s Anglican
contemporaries would be using these same texts in English
in their reformed liturgy and they would also be singing
the English Litany, since the pattern on Sundays and red-letter
days was to celebrate Mattins – Litany – Holy Communion
in one lengthy service. What the English Litany did
not contain, however, was the invocations to the Saints
contained in Byrd’s Latin
Lætania; this is one of
the settings in Book II of the
Gradualia which could
never have been employed in full in any service at the
Chapel Royal – once again, Byrd is pinning his recusant
colours to the mast.
You may think
that nine minutes of repetitious petitions in the litany
would be tedious – not so, however, in the performance
here, where the sheer beauty of the singing silences all
criticism. The blurb for the new recording on the Hyperion
website refers to ‘performances of filigree clarity, yet
great passion and sincerity’: I couldn’t express my reaction
to both CDs better.
As always with
Hyperion, the recording and presentation set off the performances
handsomely. Andrew Carwood’s notes are informative and
readable and the translations of the Latin texts are idiomatic. MG
spotted an omitted
Amen on Volume 10, subsequently
admitted by Andrew Carwood, with a promise to put things
right on a later volume in the series. I don’t think that
Beckmesser himself could seriously fault Volume 11. The
covers, both paintings by Jean Fouquet (Volume 10
The
Annunciation; Volume 11
The Martyrdom of St Peter)
set off the contents perfectly.
Hyperion already
had in their catalogue an excellent recording of some of
the music for Marian Masses from Byrd’s
Gradualia (William
Byrd Choir/Bruno Turner on budget-price Helios CDH55047). Inevitably,
there is some overlap with CDA67568:
Salve sancta parens –
Alleluia –
Eructavit
cor meum (so divided across three tracks, 9-11, on
Helios; track 4 on the new recording) is the Introit for
Ladymass in Eastertide. Bruno Turner takes 3:53 for the
whole piece, Andrew Carwood 4:37.
Beata es, Virgo Maria and
Beata
viscera, Offertory and Communion respectively, on the
other hand, are sung slightly more briskly by The Cardinall’s
Musick. Much as I like the older recording – and I am
sure that I shall still listen to it frequently and I certainly
continue to recommend it, especially at its very attractive
price – the newer recording has a slight edge here.
I have recently
recommended two sets of recordings of the
Cantiones
sacræ in my February, 2009,
Download
Roundup. The Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge/Richard
Marlow perform a selection of pieces from the 1589 and
1591 collections on Chandos Chaconne CHAN0733, including
Salve
Regina,
Laudibus in sanctis and
Quis est
homo? from Volume 10 of The Cardinall’s Musick. In
the first of these Carwood is the sprightlier, in the other
two pieces, the boot is on the other foot. Again, I must
give the Hyperion recording a slight edge without qualifying
in the least my intention to continue listening with pleasure
to the Chandos recording.
The same is true
in the case of those items which overlap with the recording
by the Choir of New College, Oxford/Edward Higginbottom
on their CRD CD of music from the
Cantiones sacræ of
1591 (CRD3439):
Laudibus in sanctis prefaces their
collection, as it ends and provides the title for the Hyperion.
Tribulatio
proxima est also overlaps with Hyperion Volume 10 and
Circumdederunt
me and
Hæc dicit Dominus overlap with Volume
11. Once more some pieces are taken more swiftly by Carwood,
others by Higginbottom, and once again I continue to cherish
both sets of performances. In this case there is even
more reason to recommend both, since New College continues
to use boy trebles, whereas all the other performances
under consideration here employ a mixed choir – there are
strong arguments for both and also strong reasons to recommend
the other two CRD/New College recordings from the 1575
(CRD3492) and 1589 (CRD3420) collections.
Even less expensive
than the Helios recording is Harmonia Mundi’s
Music
for a Hidden Chapel, music for Mass in Eastertide from
the
Gradualia (HCX395 5182 – see
review). Only
the
Regina cæli overlaps The Cardinall’s Musick – 6:41
on Harmonia Mundi, 7:07 on Hyperion Volume 10. The setting
of
Salve Regina on Harmonia Mundi is from the 1607
Gradualia,
that on Hyperion from the 1591
Cantiones. The very
low price of this Harmonia Mundi recording makes it an
almost essential purchase, whatever other Byrd recordings
you may own. Only the rather hideous cover – what a contrast
with the splendid and appropriate artwork on all three
Hyperion recordings, even the inexpensive Helios – detracts
from its value.
If you don’t yet
possess recordings of Byrd’s
Three-,
Four- and
Five-part
Masses, a recording of them should be your priority – either
the two-for-one Gimell set with Byrd’s equally fine Anglican
music,
The Great Service (The Tallis Scholars, CDGIM208)
or the three CDs on which Christ Church, Oxford, Choir
perform the Masses with appropriate propers (Nimbus NI5302,
NI5287 and NI5237 – see
review). After
that, any of the recordings which I have mentioned above
is well worth having, but none more so than these two volumes
by The Cardinall’s Musick.
Brian Wilson
see also review of volume 10 by Michael Greenhalgh
The Cardinall’s
Musick/Andrew Carwood 
