Search - The Tallis Scholars, Peter Phillips :: Duarte Lôbo: Requiem for Six Voices; Missa Vox Clamantis

Superlative

hcf | 10/09/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This has to be one of The Tallis Scholars' best recordings. After years of honing their choral skills, this group has come to be faulted by some for being just a bit too polished, just a bit too fastidious for their own good. But even if that is true that the group's stylistic imprint has occasionally overwhelmed the characteristics of the material they were singing, no such charge can be leveled against this recording. This recording is first and foremost about Duarte Lobo, and only then about The Tallis Scholars. I was astonished by the sparsity and crispness of the sound on this recording. The vowels are open, the consonants are edgy, the phrasing is eloquent and vigorous. The idiom of Spanish polyphony is served extremely well. One small complaint concerns the integration of plainchant and polyphony in the Requiem Mass: the plainchant sections occasionally sound a bit detached. - gggimpy@yahoo.com"

You really should buy this recording...

Guy Cutting | 07/23/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It seems, to me at least, that in musical terms the Renaissance was possibly the most intensly expressive (in its own subtle, understated way) of any music. And the Requiem mass as a compositional genre seems to be a vehicle for some of the most emotionally involving and profound ideas in music. Also, it seems that the Spanish (including Portugese) adopted a style even more intense than many of their counterparts. So this Renaissance Portugese Requiem music has a lot going for it. It was written in compositional idiom which stood out as highly expressive even against a backdrop of other very profound music. The liner notes (I think) and the Amazon.com review on this page will tell you that this mass is very similar to Victoria's in that it focuses more on sonority than on polyphony - the idea is to create, very prominently, a series of beautiful chords. And beautiful they are. What makes this music even more stunning is the harmonic turnover - overall the rate of harmonic change (from one chord to the next) is quite slow. The inner parts move more quickly than the outer ones, creating a contrast between eternity and tumult. The sound is absolutely amazing. The vocal lines just flow over you in this kind of unending sweetness which just doesn't let up - and those lines fall magically into chords which are powerful, delicate, joyous, and heartrending. It's just spectacular. Nowhere is this more evident than the Introit and Kyrie (tracks one and two). Like I said, the stunning beauty is just relentless - just when you think your heart is going to burst, the voices fall into yet another chord which makes you smile and brings tears to your eyes. I can only think of a few times when I've literally gasped when listening to music - one was when listening to the Agnus Dei from Palestrina's Missa Papae Marcelli, one was listening to the final Kyrie of Victoria's Requiem, one was during one of Christ's amazing recitatives in the St. Matthew Passion. There are a few others, but you get the idea. A new one to be included is the second invocation of the Kyrie Eleison on this recording. It's just stunning - I can't even begin to describe the effect. If you're familiar with Victoria's Requiem then you can get SOME idea what Lobo's sounds like. The biggest difference to me is in color - I picture Lobo's as a sort of blue, while Victoria's is darker, maybe brownish. But even though the basic compositional premise is the same the ideas expressed are very different. Suffice it to say that this is amazingly profound music. The Tallis Scholars sing with their usual precision. Notwithstanding a few harsh outbursts (witness the bass EXPLOSION on the word "oratio" in the introit, for example and several similar tenor and soprano moments) the singing is splendid, which is high praise coming from me (I'm usually indifferent towards the Tallis Scholars). The acoustic is, for once, actually very good for this particular music. It's not very reverberant, but it is a little bit soft - the sound is quite nice. The Missa Vox Clamantis mass is enjoyable, too, but to me it is incidental to the rest of the recording, this gem of a Requiem. This recording is really a treasure. (On a side note, the T. Scholars did a recording of the Requiem by Cardoso, another Portugese composer, which is equally wonderful. It has disappeared off the Amazon.com website, but it is still in issue as far as I know, so look maybe at Borders or Tower Records to find it. All that to say this: buy that one as well.). I can't give this one enough praise..."