Gaude, gaude, gaude Maria virgo [14:00]
In pace, in idipsum dormiam [6:09]
The Lord’s Prayer [3:01]
In manus tuas, Domine [4:23]
‘Western Wynde’ Mass [18:28]
Haec dies [2:34]
Christ rising again [3:48]
Spiritus Sanctus procedens [9:58]
Aeterne rex altissime [4:24]
Libera nos, salva nos [3:18]
Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge/Andrew Nethsingha
rec. 11-13 January 2013, St John’s College Chapel, Cambridge.
CHANDOS CHSA0401 SACD [70:07]
This is a very nice disc: beautifully sung; a well-balanced recording
in both stereo and a warmly inclusive surround sound, and with a rich
selection of John Sheppard’s superb music. What on earth could there
be to complain about? Well, nothing, but in fact there are a number of
aspects of this release of which your kindly reviewer feels the need to
make you aware. After that, it’s up to you.
Styles of choral singing differ, and long may this remain. The comparisons
I’ve tended to admire most in this music have been of the purer,
reduced-vibrato angelic type best represented in Hyperion’s collection
with The Sixteen directed by Harry Christophers. This is all a matter
of taste, and I can easily become used to the St John’s College
sound in these works, though with plenty of vibrato in the singing the
word ‘fruity’ constantly springs to mind. Gems such as the
final Libera nos, salve nos gain a kind of magical aura on Hyperion
CDA66259, and while this St John’s performance is very good I don’t
feel the same overwhelming presence of something other-worldly. I’m
not anti-vibrato as such, but these works have such a refinement of counterpoint
and polyphony that I find it hard to come to terms with a technical approach
which clouds such marvels. Seek out and compare Stile Antico from Harmonia
Mundi or the Tallis Scholars on the Gimell label and I hope you’ll
be able to hear what I mean.
As I say, this is all a matter of personal taste. Perhaps it is the larger
number of singers at St John’s which is bothering me, but that question
of vibrato keeps popping up. The Sixteen also indeed uses vibrato, but
their mixture of expression and clarity wins every time for me. Looking
at the ‘Western Wynde’ Mass, Andrew Nethsingha is relatively
brisk in the Gloria and Credo, creating lively contrast
with the deeper worlds of the Sanctus and Agnus Dei. These
are all performed with a keen sense of commitment, but I miss a feel of
real quiet or repose where the mood is required. The substantial opening
Gaude, gaude, gaude Maria is also given plenty of passion, but
this throws up another aspect of the interpretation which bothers me.
There is a tendency here to swoop a little too much between notes, and
I know we’re after nice legato lines but other ensembles have shown
how this can be achieved with a less lazy switch between intervals larger
than a second. If you add all this up in all voices you find another cause
for lesser polyphonic clarity throughout.
This is a very fine programme, and if you like the general choral sound
then there are good musical experiences to be had. Simpler works such
as the four-part In pace, in idipsum dormiam create nice moods,
but there was no point in this album that my world stopped turning and
I was left speechless with the wonder of it all - and I know this can
all too easily happen to me with John Sheppard’s music. I was hoping
for more and perhaps wishing for too much when seeking out this release,
but if I was still working in the record shop it would be Hyperion’s
The Sixteen which I would be pressing into your hand, confident that your
musical and spiritual senses will be heightened and transformed.
Dominy Clements
Learn to love the fruity vibrato.
And another review ...
Here's an enjoyable CD of the choral music of English early Renaissance
composer John Sheppard. We don't know much about him; not even when he
was Master of the Music at Magdalen, Oxford, and immediately afterwards
a member of the Chapel Royal. We have next to nothing about his earlier
life.
We can be sure, though, that Sheppard was living and writing during the
upheavals of the Reformation. He cannot but have been affected by the
enormous changes in religious, and hence musical, practice and traditions
of the 1540s and 1550s.
In common with such contemporaries as Carver, Mundy, Tye and Tallis, Sheppard
nevertheless composed music of great translucency. It has an almost serene
quality, though the performances on this CD don't stint from exposing
tinges of - if not roughness - then of gentle 'reality' in the musical
whole. Passages in the Gaude [tr.1], for instance, are clearly many-layered
and sung in such a way as to convey writing for individual parts and lines.
This, rather than the more monolithic wall of sound we are used to in
the masses of, say, Sheppard's near contemporaries, Palestrina and Victoria.
This is more evident in the next and third longest - after the Gaude only
the Spiritus Sanctus lasts more than five minutes- work here: the In Pace
[tr.2]. As the CD proceeds, the singing on work after work is - happily
- heard to emphasise expressiveness, emotion, projection of the substance,
rather than the flavour, of the texts.
Indeed, these performances have clearly been prepared - and are admirably
performed - to reflect the transition from the purely Latin and somewhat
Latinate world of pre-Reformation Britain to the new Anglican one. The
immediacy of the vernacular one knows in Morley and Weelkes is still a
generation away. The Choir of St John's and Andrew Nethsingha capture
the moment of that transition admirably: listen to the exuberance of the
Mass' Sanctus [tr.8], for instance.
At times, perhaps, the flow of the words in Nethsingha 's hands is a little
too … sinewy. The final "Amen" of Our Father [tr.3] is drawn out
for just too long; it suggests the legacy of Victorian hymn singing over
the purity of Renaissance self-confidence. At times you get the impression
that the singers are engaged on pressing a cause, projecting the immediacy
of this wonderful music, rather than letting it emerge. The slightly clipped
pace of In manus tuas [tr.4] and the melismata in the Mass's Gloria [tr.5]
are other examples. The singing becomes very … 'personal'. Geoffrey
Clapham's bass chanting of Haec Dies [tr.6] gains much of its impact and
immediacy from a slightly pinched articulation more in the fashion of
Ensemble Organum, than of an English choir.
The acoustic of St John's Chapel, Cambridge is resonant; at times almost
distancing from the music's unmistakable centre of gravity though not
a syllable is lost. The balance between soloists and choir is a good one:
they're clearly all working in the service of the music. This is all to
the good given the times when what amounts to self-consciousness has crept
in. The booklet sets the scene for understanding Sheppard, describes each
piece, and contains the texts in full in Latin and English.
With the exception of Christ Rising Again, all of the works here presented
are available on equally good recordings elsewhere. That shouldn't dissuade
you from taking a good look at this release on Chaconne. You'll need to
take into consideration that what we hear at times almost suggests that
Nethsingha and his choir are trying to prove something about the music,
instead of revealing its undoubted beauty and depth.
Mark Sealey
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