MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

REVIEW

BARGAIN OF THE MONTH



Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 

alternatively
CD: MDT AmazonUK AmazonUS

William BYRD (1539?/43?-1623)
Mass for Five Voices (c.1595)* [26:02]
Mass for Four Voices (c.1592)** [22:43]
Mass for Three Voices (early 1590s)*** [19:24]
Ave Verum Corpus (Gradualia, 1605)** [4:04]
Christ Church Cathedral Choir, Oxford/Stephen Darlington
rec. Dorchester Abbey, Oxon., UK, 13-14 November, 1989*, 29-30 October, 1990**, 13-14 May 1991***. DDD
REGIS RRC1336 [72:11]

Experience Classicsonline





These recordings are taken from three Nimbus CDs, NI5237, 5287 and 5320, which I reviewed jointly some time ago – see review. Nimbus issued them separately, each with an appropriate coupling – the 5-part with the Propers for All Saints’ Day, the 4-part with those for Corpus Christi, including the Ave verum Corpus on the new Regis CD, and the 3-part with those for the Nativity.

I was torn then between the virtues of The Tallis Scholars on a 2-for-1 Gimmel reissue – the three masses and Ave verum Corpus, plus The Great Service – and the advantages of having the Masses sung by Christ Church choir as they would have been in a liturgical celebration with the Introit, etc., for a particular day. That option remains open, as the Nimbus CDs are still available – and can be ordered direct from MusicWeb International – but the reissue on a single CD at super-budget price is obviously very appealing.

The advantages of having Christ Church Choir sing this music are obvious: this is a college/cathedral choir which performs this kind of repertoire regularly at daily services. Moreover, the constitution of the choir has remained unchanged since the college was founded by Cardinal Wolsey, before even Byrd was born. Though that doesn’t mean that the sound is what Byrd would have expected, it does mean that their singing of renaissance English music is special.

The Tallis Scholars sing with a combination of men’s and women’s voices, but they are probably closer in size to the forces which Byrd would have had at his disposal. While he could think in terms of the Chapel Royal for his settings of the English liturgy in the Great Service, Second Service and Anthems, the Latin Mass had to be celebrated hugger-mugger in small private chapels such as that of Byrd’s patrons, the Petres, at Ingatestone in Essex.

Excellent as the singing of the Christ Church choir is, The Tallis Scholars – whose base is also in Oxford and whose director cut his teeth in the same tradition as the choir – are a professional group whose work I consistently admire. Their recording costs slightly more than the Regis reissue, but you also obtain a wonderful performance of The Great Service and three English anthems. It comes with all the texts and translations, which the Regis CD doesn’t contain and it can also be downloaded for £7.99 (mp3) or £8.99 (lossless), which actually makes it more than competitive with the Regis. (The Tallis Scholars sing William Byrd, CDGIM208 – here).

The Tallis Scholars are not renowned as speed merchants, but their timings for the Byrd Masses are generally slightly faster than those adopted by Stephen Darlington. I suspect that he takes the music a little more slowly because he’s used to the acoustic of Christ Church chapel, even though these recordings were made in the friendlier acoustic of Dorchester Abbey, a few miles down the road. Despite a preference for the Scholars, I didn’t think that the Christ Church tempi dragged at any point – they are generally solemn and dignified rather than exuberant. In Ave verum Corpus, they are actually very slightly faster than the Scholars, without losing the sense of reverence appropriate to the work.

That motet is taken from Byrd’s 1605 collection of Gradualia, performed out of context on the Regis CD and on the Gimell set, but in its proper context as part of the Mass for Corpus Christi in its position on the original Nimbus recording. Fine though the performance is, these pieces do benefit from being sung in context, but only you can decide whether that warrants the outlay on three CDs as opposed to purchasing the single Regis disc. If you would like to listen to more of these Gradualia, you’ll find them on the Cardinall’s Musick recordings which I’ve mentioned – the earlier CDs on the ASV label are not easy to find, but the later volumes on Hyperion are. Hyperion also have a single CD from the Gradualia – William Byrd Choir/Gavin Turner on budget-price CDH55047.

There’s another recording in the same price bracket as the Regis: Jeremy Summerly directing another Oxford-based ensemble, the Oxford Camerata on Naxos (8.550574). The snag is that it offers only the four- and five-part Masses, plus Infelix ego. You’ll probably want all three Masses – and Infelix ego has a serious rival: it’s the piece which gives its name to the crowning achievement of Andrew Carwood’s and The Cardinall’s Musick’s recent complete survey of Byrd’s music. (Hyperion CDA67779: Recording of the Month – see review and Download of the Month – see February 2010 Roundup).

Neither the Naxos nor the Regis CDs come with texts; those for the ordinary of the Mass and Ave verum Corpus are not hard to find online, but it’s still a nuisance to have to search for them.

All the recordings mentioned sound very well. Christ Church were recorded in their favourite venue down the road at Dorchester and the sound has been well re-mastered for Regis, levelling out the different recording dates. The re-mastering even seems to have ironed out the slightly distant recording in the three-part work. If you just want the three Masses and Ave verum Corpus at super-budget price, this is an excellent bargain of the same order as another Nimbus-sourced Regis recording, Masters of the English Renaissance (RRC1320 – see December 2010 Download Roundup).

Brian Wilson




 

 

 



 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools






Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.