These recordings, in download format, were enthusiastically
welcomed by Brian Wilson only recently. Those collectors
who, like me, have not so far dipped their toes in the download
waters will be glad to know that a CD alternative is also available.
David Skinner was, with Andrew Carwood, the co-founder of the
ensemble The Cardinall’s Musick so his credentials as
an expert on and performer of the music of the Renaissance period
are well known. This new release seems to me to marry his excellence
in scholarship and performance in pretty much equal measure.
It is also a notable ‘first’ for this is the first
time that the remarkable collection of thirty-four motets by
Tallis and Byrd, the Cantiones Sacrae of 1575, has been
recorded complete, by the same group of singers and in the original
order of publication. As David Skinner explains in a most interesting
note, some transposition of individual pieces was necessary
in order for the music to work as a sequence. One can dip into
this collection to hear individual items but if one listens
to a sequence of them one is struck by how cohesive is the collection.
A key advantage of having all these marvellous pieces gathered
together is that the listener can appreciate all the more the
compositional skill and the sheer range of expression - and
degree of intensity - within the music. I must say that I’ve
found it an enthralling experience to listen to these discs
and having all thirty-four pieces from the Cantiones Sacrae
brought together in one recording does enable one to appreciate
the music all the more for hearing it in its intended setting.
In his review of the download Brian Wilson said that he’d
read a review elsewhere which, as Brian put it, “accuses
this recording of cold perfection.” Now I must admit I
haven’t seen the review of which Brian speaks and therefore
I haven’t read that reviewer’s opinion in context
but I do feel I should reassure our readers that I hear nothing
“cold” in these performances. The singing is very
accurate and there’s a clear purity in the tone of the
female voices but I have no sense whatsoever that the singers
are other than completely engaged with the music. The tenors,
for example, are not afraid to sing out in an open-throated
yet controlled way while the bass line is firm and suitably
sonorous at all times. So, for instance, Byrd’s joyful
Attolite portas is delivered with vigour and vitality,
though not at the expense of clarity in the six-part polyphony.
By contrast, the same composer’s Da mihi auxilium
is delivered with great intensity. David Skinner sets a measured
pace and he and his expert singers see to it that the intricate
polyphony unfolds with a seeming inevitability.
Arguably, that piece by Byrd and his Domine secundum actum
meum and Diliges Dominum are at the expressive heart
of the Cantiones Sacrae and it’s marvellous to
be able to enjoy them in sequence. Domine secundum actum
meum is, like Da mihi auxilium, an intense, penitential
piece and it’s marvellously performed here. The account
of Diliges Dominum, the most luxuriantly scored piece
in the collection - eight parts - is no less fine. The performance
is slow and prayerful and wonderfully controlled. To experience
Alamire in a less inward style, however, sample Byrd’s
Libera me Domine de morte to which they bring a dramatic
fervour.
Tallis is just as well served as is his younger colleague. That
exquisite miniature, O nata lux, appears in a flowing
and beautifully poised account and I also relished the performance
of Dum transisset sabbatum, a beautiful and very private
setting. The very last piece in the collection is his seven-voice
Miserere nostri Domine. This is yet another intense and
prayerful setting. It’s especially moving to hear it as
the final item in the programme, I doubt that Tallis and Byrd
ever expected - or wanted, perhaps - that their pieces should
be performed as a sequence butI found that when one hears
Miserere nostri Domine in this context, at the end of
the collection, it has an air of ‘finis’.
I’d ask readers to take it on trust that every single
item is performed to the same exceptionally high standard -
the musicianship of Alamire is remarkable - and the quality
of the music itself is consistently superior.
Alamire perform the music with one singer to a part. Twelve
singers took part in the project - two sopranos, two female
altos, four tenors and two each of baritones and basses. The
pieces are mainly in four or five parts though two require seven
voices and one is in eight parts. This means some shuffling
of the pack of singers - there’s a full list of who sings
what in the excellent booklet - but the vocal quality remains
constant. It may be invidious to single out individual singers,
since all are excellent, but two caught my ear in particular.
Bass Robert Macdonald sings in all but one of the pieces and
his secure, rich voice anchors the ensemble splendidly. His
alto colleague, Clare Wilkinson, goes one better. She sings
in every item (as do tenor Christopher Watson and baritone Timothy
Whiteley) and she carries the top line in the majority of the
pieces. Her pure, accurate and well-focused voice is a constant
source of pleasure.
But this is a release that’s about teamwork. All of the
singers involved do a splendid job and, though all are vastly
experienced consort singers, it’s clear that they have
been expertly prepared by David Skinner, whose direction of
the music bespeaks not just scholarship and musicianship but
also a great love of the music. This release is a significant
achievement.
In his notes Dr Skinner describes the acoustic of the recording
venue, the Fitzalan Chapel at Arundel Castle, as “sublime”.
The recorded sound is wonderful. The resonance and warmth of
the acoustic has been captured and used expertly by the engineers
and the music comes across with a marvellous clarity. Arundel
Castle is a most appropriate venue for this recording because,
as the seat of the Dukes of Norfolk, England’s premier
Roman Catholic family, it stayed in Catholic hands during the
English Reformation of the sixteenth century and has remained
so ever since. It’s therefore very likely that at least
some of this music has been heard in this very chapel quite
regularly in the four centuries since it was composed.
I understand that this set is the inaugural release in a projected
series, which is planned to run to some thirty volumes. This
will encompass English music from the High Middle Ages to the
seventeenth-century Commonwealth. This inspiring recording of
the Cantiones Sacrae launches the project in a most auspicious
fashion. If future releases maintain this exceptional standard
then the series will be a very important one.
John Quinn
Alamire/David Skinner 
