Allegri: Miserere

Gregorio Allegri (Composer), William Mundy (Composer), Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (Composer), Michael Chance (Performer), Joseph Cornwell (Performer), Jane Armstrong (Performer), Judith Stell (Performer), Ruth Duncan (Performer), Julia Williams (Performer), Alison Stamp (Performer), Andrew King (Performer), Douglas Leigh (Performer), Colin Scott Mason (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Michael Chance, Joseph Cornwell, Jane Armstrong, Judith Stell, Ruth Duncan, et al.
• Composer: Gregorio Allegri, William Mundy, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
• Audio CD (November 15, 2005)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Gimell UK
• ASIN: B000B865AA
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #115,269 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #66 in Music > Classical > Opera & Vocal > Vocal Non-Opera > Partsongs

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a voice teacher and early music fan, February 3, 2006

By 

George Peabody "Ariel" (U.S.A.) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Allegri: Miserere (Audio CD)

THIS REISSUE AT HALF PRICE TOUCHES OUR VERY SOUL WITH ITS INCREDIBLE BEAUTY!

This recording by the Tallis Scholars under the direction of Peter Phillips is considered by many to be the finest performance of Allegri's "Miserere". This composition is quite simple in construction and much of it's impact relies on the conditions of performance, especially on the acoustic. And so the Tallis Scholars have used a reverberant building. It was recorded in Merton College Chapel,Oxford, and sets new standards for recording unaccompanied sacred music.

I would be remiss if I did not mention the wonderful moments created by the solo group in 'Miserere':Allison Stamp(treble), Jane Armstrong, Michael Chance, and Julian Walker. The sound of these voices raises one to the heights and projects such exquisite beauty. Allison Stamp's highest note as the melody peaks is uncanningly beautiful!

Palestrina's "Missa Papae Marcelli" has five movements. The richness of his music comes from the predominant use of lower voices- two tenors and two basses-with one countertenor and one treble. It was this glorious 'Marcellus Mass' that so impressed the Council of Trent (convened to purify the church service) in 1564, that they left Palestrina's music untouched.

William Mundy's "Vox Patris caelstis" (the voice of the Heavenly Father)was written during Queen Mary's reign (1553-1558) and is contemporary with Palestrina's work. Mundy composed on an enormous scale, the audibllity of the words being secondary to the expansion of the melodies, though he clearly appreciated the sensual connotation of the text, which is adapted from the 'Song of Solomon', as in, for instance, the repetitions of the word 'Veni'. I found this selection to be riveting in its glory. It begins with Jane Armstrong(mean) and Michael Chance countertenor first singing alone and then together; such celestial music (Song of Solomon); thus its heavenly harmonies.

There is much to enjoy on this disc for the early music lover. Of course, one need only see the name "Tallis Scholars", and we know that we will hear the best in tone production, balance, phrasing, diction and appropriate emotion as the music indicates. Listening to this disc is the greatest musical experience not to be matched by any other. This reissue is half the price of the l981 issue. And remember 'A thing of beauty is a joy forever'.(Keats -maybe?)

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars At long last!, September 26, 2009

By 

Alexander Waverley "Alexander Waverley" (A tailor shop?) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Allegri: Miserere (Audio CD)

I heard Miserere performed at St. Martin-in-the-Fields several year ago by the London Musical Arts Ensemble & Chorus. It was moving beyond description. This is the only recording I have heard that captures that experience.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stellar, although the Mundy would be better at today's written pitch, April 19, 2009

By 

Alexander Z. Damyanovich (Flesherton, Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Allegri: Miserere (Audio CD)

There is no question about this CD being one of the finest of its métier and type that was ever recorded, period!! Great ensemble work (to the point where all the singers' identity melts into the cohesive whole), excellent sound engineering and superlative repertoire! While I have my qualms about the Latin pronunciation (the Italian version of "Church" Latin, with its disregard of certain spellings and consequent voiding of the real sounds the language used to have, really grates on the nerves of this writer - who'd rather go back to what our philologists tell us would have been the authentic Latin of Cæsar or Augustus), everything else is so convincingly and completely done to the best as to carry such faults before it! [My other quibble relates to the pitch of the William Mundy motet being raised by a full minor-third, following the recommendations of some of today's scholars: given the voice-ranges called for in this 6-part work (SSAATB, where a couple of sections seem even to call for divided parts, though 6 soloists with the right ranges can do it full justice nevertheless), raising the pitch pushes voices to near to the top limit of their ability so the consequent strain is already tangible (fortunately, not in an unpleasant way on this recording) - leaving it untransposed has it feel much more natural.]

The other reviewer has already written more than enough about the Allegri Miserere and Palestrina "Missa Papæ Marcelli"; I'd like to focus more on the Mundy "Vox Patris Coelestis" (proper Latin uses "cOelum" instead of "cAelum", pronounced "ko-EE-loom" as opposed to "chA-loom"). This is a true revelation of a work (even if those of us who lean to Protestantism will squirm with the excessive quantity of praise lavished upon the Virgin Mary!). While supposedly lacking "any strong directional melodic or rhythmic impetus" (terms perhaps better associated with the great tonal corpus of works from ca. 1650 to 1900 - this music after all is very much still associated with the old church modes that governed everything until 1660), the masterful way in which the polyphony is handled in addition to how the actual melodic lines (and yes, the work is very melodic nonetheless!!) don't lose their purity in spite of their ornateness in addition to how they blend both vertically (harmonically) and horizontally (contrapuntally) is absolutely awesome! Also noteworthy is the inexorability the work develops as it progresses.

Yes, the words do frequently have a hard time making their impact because of the composer's not making them a top priority (though there's no question of their fully inspiring this work!). [The Counter-Reformation would have had to condemn this work in that regard, alas: the charge was that composers focussed so much on their polyphony as well as putting all sorts of flourishes and ornaments into their music so the words couldn't be heard. The Palestrina Mass, on the other hand, was written in part (at least according to a legend) to prove that polyphony and words getting their audibility due COULD co-exist.] On the other hand, this work truly transports the listener to the point of readily being at one with what the Church wanted to be emphasised: the ecstatic state of the blessed people (especially saints!) after their deaths, welcomed into the Heavenly Company. With this music, one truly reaches into the topmost circle of Heaven, as Dante Alighieri put it, where the word can't go any further - every bit as much for certain as with the Palestrina work (this writer, in fact, prefers the Mundy on account of its greater expressivity).

No questions whatever about its being 100% and more recommended!!!