I suspect that the only times when you might think of Gregorio
Allegri might be on Ash Wednesday or, more correctly in Holy
Week when his (in)famous Miserere is performed in many
churches and cathedrals and broadcast on Choral Evensong. In
fact there is much more to this man than that curiosity.
The young voices of King’s College, London, who must have
been coming afresh to this rare music, are alert and alive to
the music’s subtle nuances. They are pictured in the booklet
in their distinguished black robes. Their conductor David Trendell
extracts some very passionate and committed singing.
Their programme begins with the premiere recording of Missa
In Lectulo Meo. The Kyrie alternates plainchant with
polyphony. This is a parody mass in eight parts using portions
and melodies of a motet by one Pierre Bonhomme (or Bonomi),
a Roman composer and singer. His motet appears in a Vatican
manuscript. Trendell, who has also written the very informative
notes, makes the unusual move of placing this motet between
the Credo and Sanctus on the CD. A good idea this
and one I have not met before, although as one can programme
things nowadays I would suggest that you listen to the motet
first. The text is from The Song of Songs, that almost
erotic book from the Old Testament. It begins ‘In my bed
by night I sought him whom my soul loveth’. The motet
is antiphonal almost throughout as is much of the mass; listen
especially to the extraordinarily long Kyrie. There is
nothing untoward in this music. The sound is opulent and very
much of the ‘stile antico’ - a little out of fashion
coming as it did well into the 17th century. One curiosity is
the Agnus, which is short and only runs to the one acclamation
ending with ‘miserere nobis’.
Imagine being famous for one work, very famous in fact, but
when you are invited to hear the work, it bears little resemblance
to your original intentions. In fact it may be even better.
That is what has seemingly happened to Allegri’s well-known
nine-part Miserere. As a boy I recall the frisson of
excitement. The top Cs were shared around between say three
of us. Would I be the one to fluff my lines or be the best at
sailing gladly into the famous rising fourth and making it ring
out through the church whilst my friends screeched their efforts
with tiring diaphragmatic control. In the polite world of King’s
College I’m sure that there is no such rivalry between
Marie Macklin and Poppy Ewence who find the ozone layer conducive
on every occasion even if there can be detected the occasional,
and inevitable slight scoop.
If, like me, you have the Henry Washington edition of this piece
(Chester, 1976) then you will notice that some of the chanted
speech rhythms are a little different. The antiphonal plainchant
is not only allotted to a tenor soloist but also the usual chant
is not used. I’m pleased to say that the booklet tells
us of the editions used on this disc and the one here is published
by OUP.
There are five surviving masses by Allegri. The Venetian style
is even more clear in the Easter Mass Christus resurgens,a
parody of the composer’s own motet which is again heard
after the Creed. Both are again in eight parts and therefore
offer a chance for much declamatory imitation and exciting scalic
patterns. Oddly enough the Christe and the Benedictus
are not set so plainchant is interpolated on this recording,
which is probably what Allegri would have expected. There are
also sections in triple time for instance the Gloria deo
patris which ends the Gloria, the Et resurrexit
in the Credo and later towards the end of the movement
in the Et in spiritum sanctum and in the Sanctus
for the Hosannas. In all of these I just wish the choir
would let the music lift a little more and be more dance-like.
The Mass is succinct as the Council of Trent had decreed
over fifty years previously but the moving two-fold Agnus
dei points to a baroque world of suspensions and part-writing
not necessarily in Palestrina’s harmony book. The choir
is supported in this mass by the organ continuo, which in such
a celebratory work is quite in keeping.
This is a vibrant and exciting CD helped by an airy and spacious
acoustic. It’s certainly worth exploring both from the
point of view of meeting a fine choir and of encountering some
fine and mostly unknown music.
Gary Higginson
The Choir of King’s College, London/David Trendell 