Messes de Barcelone et d'Apt

Messes de Barcelone et d'Apt
Ensemble Gilles Binchois, Dominique Vellard
Evidence Classics EVCD060

This programme is built around two mass settings and two manuscripts thought to preserve polyphonic music from the Papal liturgy at Avignon around 1400. The first mass is the ‘Messe De Barcelone’ whilst not a cyclic mass it contains two troped movements, Gloria and Sanctus, which create a pleasing symmetry around a substantial credo (tantalisingly labelled as by ‘Sortes’). Performing in a combination of voices, vielles and gittern, Ensemble Gilles Binchois cultivate an attractively unhurried, brooding quality; particularly in the hymn-like Kyrie which showcases the rich vocal quality of the singers. Compared with a relatively recent performance by Capella de Ministrers / Carles Magraner (CdM 08/15) this is a conservative, but sensitive offering. The Gloria has a nicely varied texture with surprisingly mellifluous tropes given over to countertenor and vielles. The Credo is performed with alternating groups of lower voices emphasising the gravitas of this large central movement. Characterised by gentle reedy countertenors and bright, light tenors, this ensemble has lots of vocal personality; they keep phrases buoyant whilst generally avoiding an accelerating towards those delightfully angular Ars Nova cadences.

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To read the full text of this article please visit www.gramophone.co.uk (Sept 2019)

Obrecht: Masses
Missa Fortuna Desperata & Missa Maria Zart
Beauty Farm
FB1905157 

[...] let’s compare three recordings of Missa Maria zart. This hour-long cyclic Mass is one of the biggest of the Renaissance, a surprising feat at odds with Obrecht’s modest modern profile. The Prague Madrigal Singers in 1969 (Supraphon, 6/72 – nla), singing pre-‘break in interpretation’, took a robust approach alternating a chamber choir – complete with consistent/persistent vibrato – with passages of staunch-toned vocal duets. They also employed a feast of instrumental colours on the cantus firmus. The Tallis Scholars in 1992, presumably emblematic of a ‘break in tradition’, made much lighter work of Obrecht’s busy contrapuntal textures. Their smaller ensemble and minimal vibrato created forwards momentum through gracefully phrased arcs, and they subtly embedded the long-notes of the Maria zart song in the polyphonic texture. Beauty Farm sit between these two approaches but much closer to The Tallis Scholars: their tone is richer, without persistent vibrato, and with one voice per part they delineate each polyphonic strand through different hues of vowel-sounds and shades of vocal effort. They are more confident in busier passages where they have a nice tone, balance and momentum. Longer, two-voice textures spawn occasional sour tuning (‘Qui tollis I’ in the Gloria in particular) but in general they sing with tenderness and maintain attractively brisker tempos than either other recording.

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To read the full text of this article please visit www.gramophone.co.uk (Sept 2019)