Pro Cantione Antiqua has a long pedigree and their recordings,
luckily, continue to appear in the catalogues. This CD contains
two Palestrina masses, originally recorded in 1980 and 1990,
now appearing on the Alto label. With rare exceptions, the group
recorded with an all male line-up using counter-tenors on the
top line. Though this would have been unremarkable in Palestrina’s
lifetime, having an all-male ensemble continues to be relatively
rare. There are pluses and minuses to this.
The pieces have to be sung at low-ish pitch as the counter-tenors
tend not to go above E, which means that sometimes a passage
seems a little low. But this happens so rarely that you start
to enjoy the way the pieces fit the tessitura of the voices,
as with The Cardinall’s Musick’s performance of Byrd’s
four-part mass with similar forces.
More seriously, the counter-tenors are sometimes a little shallow-toned
at the top of their register; the sound of a male, falsetto-based,
voice lightening the tone and shading off as the top note is
reached is vastly different from the way a soprano would attack
the line. But Pro Cantione Antiqua prove themselves even here,
partly because of their strongly talented line-up of singers.
These are not simply archaeological performances, but strongly
musical ones.
A hint of this can be gained from looking at some of the names
who appear in these recordings, Paul Esswood, Timothy Penrose,
Ian Partridge, Stephen Roberts, Michael George, Charles Brett,
Ashley Stafford, Wynford Evans and Christopher Keyte. These are
finely musical performances, sung by singers who are both intelligent
and possessed of characterful voices. Many of them are known
for their solo work and their aural effect is notable for the
distinctiveness of the individuals. This is no seamlessly blended
bland-sounding group, each line lives with vibrancy. They don’t
reach the sort of moulded perfection attained by the likes of
the Tallis Scholars. Instead you remain aware that the line is
made up of individuals - a real ensemble.
On this disc they perform one of Palestrina’s best known
masses,
Missa Papae Marcelli, the mass with which he is
reputed to have saved Church music. Whether he did or no, it
is a very fine mass and has the advantage that listening to it
can reap great rewards. I rather suspect that many Palestrina
masses are rather more interesting to sing than to listen to.
But the soaring lines of
Missa Papae Marcelli provide
great interest and, in this performance, real emotional intensity.
This is followed by Palestrina’s setting of the
Stabat
Mater. Never printed during Palestrina’s lifetime,
the work was written for the Papal Chapels during the last decade
of Palestrina’s life. Here it receives a poised, well modulated
performance.
The
Missa l’Homme Armé follows. It is one
of the many masses based on the famous medieval song. Palestrina
takes advantage of the strong, symmetrical musical motif to create
a brilliantly constructed mass. Finally we get two gems, the
motets
Alma Redemptoris Mater and
Peccantem Me Quotidie.
The CD booklet includes an informative article by Bruno Turner
and full Latin texts but no translations.
Those who wish for a rather more refulgent tone in the top line
should perhaps consider looking at other choirs. Also the earlier
of the recordings may be beginning to show their age. But I have
no qualms about recommending this disc to everyone. The performers
wear their learning lightly and never has musical archaeology
been produced with such intelligence.
Robert Hugill
Pro Cantione Antiqua/Bruno
Turner, Mark Brown (Armé) 
