Search - Josquin Desprez, Gregorian Chant, Marcel Peres :: Desprez: Missa Pange lingua

One of the Finest Performances of a Josquin Mass

Giordano Bruno | Wherever I am, I am. | 10/17/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This CD is a re-released "enhanced" version of the 1986 recording by the Ensemble Clement Jannequin and Ensemble Organum. It's very inadequately described on this product page. It contains the proper plainchant - introit, graduel, alleluia, offertoire, and the hymn "Pange Lingua" upon which the mass is structured. The countertenors deserve to be identified, since they've both become superstars of Early Music since this recording was made; they are Dominique Visse and Gerard Lesne.



The movements of the mass are sung here one-on-a-part, by very secure singers who need no 'tactus' from a conductor. The result is graceful independence in phrasing and in timing, allowing each voice of this four-part mass to express its own rhetoric. The tessitura of this music is quite low; it is suitable really only for a closed ensemble of men's voices. Four more resonant voices than those of Ensemble Janequin could hardly be found in all of Europe. Missa Pange Lingua is Josquin's best known mass; chances are good that listeners will have sung it in their own church or community choirs. Thus it has a familiarity that makes the hearing of a truly polished performance all the more thrilling. There are at least five CDs of Pange Lingua available, but this is the pick of the crop.



The plainchant movements are sung by a different quartet of voices, Ensemble Organum, under the direction of Marcel Peres, whose 'controversial' ideas about authentic Gregorian singing techniques have caused something of a revolution in the field. This performance is less eccentric than some of Peres's work, and it is movingly musical, a fine counterpart to the polyphony of Josquin.



Other excellent performances of music by Josquin include:

*Three CDs by the Clerks' Group, of masses and related motets

*Missa Hercules Dux Ferrariae by the Hilliard Ensemble

*Adieu Mes Amours - chansons - by Ensemble Clement Janequin

*Stabat Mater - motets - by La Chapelle Royale, Philippe Herreweghe

*Missa Mater Patris , by Chanticleer (one of their best CDs)



I find the recordings by "A Sei Voci", with the childrens' choir of the Loire, interesting and at times exciting, but ultimately musically handicapped by their concept. The many recordings of Josquin by The Tallis Scholars and by the Oxford Camerata are not especially to my taste."

Gorgeous with one big disappointment

a reader... | new york city | 01/24/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"gorgeous performance, beautiful packaging, but with one big disappointment. the original hymne/chant, pange lingua, is included, but they cut three of the verses. a serious error in judgment."