Huh? Nobody has reviewed this yet?
Giordano Bruno | Wherever I am, I am. | 02/01/2010
(4 out of 5 stars)
"It was recorded in 1994!
Cipriano was one of the more successful emigrants from Flanders to Italy in the 16th C, following in the footsteps of Adrian Willaert (and of course Josquin) to the Este court in Ferrara, the world capital of muisc at mid-century. Willaert moved on to become 'maestro di capella' at Saint Mark's in Venice, the most prestigious job for a composer/musician in all Europe, and Cipriano succeeded him in that plum position in 1563. The evolution of music from the Franco-Flemish polyphonists to Gabrieli and thus to Schutz runs through Willaert and de Rore.
Missa Praeter rerum seriem was written during Cipriano's eleven years' service to Duke Ercole d'Este II, sometime before 1558. Given its date, it's remarkably progressive in many ways, sounding almost ready to turn madrigalesque before its time, yet in fact it's very closely based on the structure and manner of an earlier composition by Josquin, the motet of the same title, recorded as the first track of this CD. It's a windswept moor of polyphony, a piece of music of the darkest and most solemn beauty.
I'd say more about this performance by The Tallis Scholars, but it's at best a second choice. The recording of Missa praeter rerum seriem by The Huelgas Ensemble is more energetic, clearer in concept, and better engineered in recording. I'll get around to reviewing that CD soon.
Another ensemble, The Gabrieli Consort, has recorded this same mass as part of its "Venetian Christmas" CD. The ordinaries of de Rore's mass are interspersed with plainchant, liturgical antiphons, and instrumental canzone. Such a performance was certainly more plausible in Venice than in Ferrara or Parma, where Cipriano also worked. This CD is just a touch too ambitious for its own aesthetic welfare, but well worth hearing."
Track Listings (10) - Disc #1
