Search - Tallis Scholars :: Live in Oxford

This newly-recorded 25th-anniversary release captures the amazingly consistent, smooth, crystalline perfection with which the Tallis Scholars render everything they sing. The program includes 15th-century English and Flemish a cappella works (no Masses among them) which the choir has performed in concert for years but has (with two exceptions) never recorded--lively songs of praise to the Virgin Mary like Josquin's "Gaude virgo" and Taverner's extended "Gaude plurimum," as well as serene works like Obrecht's rapturous "Salve regina" and Byrd's mellifluous "Tribue, Domine." The finale is William Mundy's magnificent 20-minute "Vox patris cælestis," which the group brought to public attention on their first commercial record in 1980--the intervening years of experience have only added polish to their rendition of it. --Matthew Westphal