Cristobal de Morales: Missa Si bona suscepimus / Tallis Scholars [Import]

Philippe Verdelot (Composer), Cristobal de Morales (Composer), Thomas Crecquillon (Composer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Composer: Philippe Verdelot, Cristobal de Morales, Thomas Crecquillon
• Audio CD (November 14, 2000)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Gimell, UK
• ASIN: B0000509J7
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #202,087 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

As of autumn 2000, it has been two years since the last new Tallis Scholars release. Do they still have the same high, clear sound and immaculate execution that made them famous? This recording isn't state-of-the-year-2000 Tallis Scholars (no recording date is given, though it has been in the can for several years), but for better and worse, Peter Phillips and his singers sound just like they always have. Their performance is impeccably tuned, perfectly blended, atmospheric, and phrased and delivered in just the same smooth, suave Palestrina-esque style they use whatever the music they sing. Happily, that style suits the music of Cristóbal de Morales (who was slightly older than Victoria and every bit his equal) very nicely. The Missa Si bona suscepimus is a real beauty, and we're very fortunate that Phillips has revived it. Morales's mass setting is sweeter and more consoling than its model, a gently melancholy motet by Philippe Verdelot, thanks to the extra treble part Morales added to the motet's five voices. If there's a serous flaw in the Tallis Scholars' interpretation, it's that the tempos are just slow enough that one can be lulled into a lovely haze and lose track of the musical source material and the wonderful changes Morales rings on it. The disc closes with a stately performance of what was Morales's most famous motet: Andreas Christi famulus, composed for the meeting of the Order of the Golden Fleece in 1546 (attended by the kings Henry VIII, François I, and Charles V), turns out to have been composed by Charles's chapel master, Thomas Crecquillon. It is a magnificent work in any case, and it rounds out a most welcome disc. --Matthew Westphal

From International Record Review - subscribe now

‘No Spanish composer of the sixteenth century was more lauded during his lifetime and for two hundred years after his death than Morales.' Peter Phillips's insert notes open with this opinion from a leading twentieth-century musicologist. In fact, even in the early eighteenth century scholars were describing Morales as the most important composer before Palestrina and after Josquin, and praising his unique skill in combining the techniques of Italian counterpoint with the sweet sound of Spanish melodies and harmonies.

Morales, born in Seville around 1500, spent ten years from 1535 as a member of the choir of the Sistine chapel in Rome. He clearly relished this exposure to the wealth of continental musical styles that came together in early sixteenth-century Rome, not just Italian but Franco-Flemish too. Just before he left to return to Spain he saw two volumes of his Mass settings through the press in Rome, a fitting record of his time there. The central work on this disc, his Missa Si bona suscepimus, appeared in the first of these publications. Previously unrecorded, it is performed here by The Tallis Scholars with passion, commitment, sensitivity and vigour.

Beyond its beautifully soaring soprano lines underpinned by passing dissonances created by the lower voices, one of the striking features of Morales's Mass is that, although it is predominantly polyphonic, the text-setting is always clear. The Tallis Scholars do full justice to this: their sound is strong and immediate, with little trace of the English restraint and gentility that often waters down performances of this repertoire. This robust approach to Morales's counterpoint means that contrasting passages have great impact – ranging from the emphatic declamation of ‘descendit de coelis' in the Credo to the slower, more reflective sections of the Benedictus and Agnus Dei (notably the emotive setting of ‘miserere' here). Technically The Tallis Scholars are virtually faultless, and Phillips is not afraid to use the full range of expressive means, varying dynamics, pace and articulation in response to musical and textual shifts and the larger-scale demands of the work's structure. The shaping of the contrasts of mood and texture between the calmer, simpler Sanctus and the busier Osanna on the fifth track is a good example of this.

The music on this disc has been carefully chosen: the Missa Si bona suscepimus is framed by a performance of Philippe Verdelot's motet Si bona suscepimus, which Morales used as the basis for his parody Mass (the term ‘parody' when applied to Renaissance Masses has connotations of homage and respect rather than ridicule), and a motet formerly attributed to Morales but now thought to be by his Franco-Flemish contemporary Thomas Crecquillon. I find Crecquillon's Andreas Christi famulus a very appealing work, given a warm performance here; the constant changes of texture and the exquisite suspensions in the final hearing of ‘gaudat in coelis' are particularly fine.

In all, this is the best sort of ‘historically aware' performance: an exploration of fine music in the context of less well-known contemporary pieces combined with intelligent and expressive music-making of the highest quality, the result serving to reveal the richness of this repertoire. This is a comparatively short CD, but quality rather than quantity certainly persuades here. The disc is also attractively packaged, the cover illustration taken from Michelangelo's Sistine chapel ceiling, a work he was appointed to begin on the same day that Pope Paul III appointed Morales to join his chapel choir.

Emma Wakelin

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Morales and TS at their best., March 3, 2010

By 

Niall Fox - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Cristobal de Morales: Missa Si bona suscepimus / Tallis Scholars (Audio CD)

Cristobal De Morales strides once again to the forefront of Spanish polyphony here.There might have been a sense of visual hyperbole in the choice of cover illustration for this cd, except that when you have heard the music you may agree with me that neither Morales nor Michelangelo is the more flattered by the association.The composer's biographical circumstances aside, I am quite sure Peter Phillips would not allow such an association if he had not thought it entirely apt, i.e. that the visual and aural artworks in question were quite matched in sublimity.The movements of this Mass build in intensity so much that one is left wondering why Renaissance music is often still regarded as the older academic ancestor who served a didactic function before Bach, Mozart and Beethoven etc. came along to write the 'real music'.This is as real and valid a recorded musical experience as I, for one, could wish for. The performance is superb.I have most of the Tallis Scholars recordings but I believe they have never sung better nor given greater advocacy to a work than they do here. Nineteenth century musicology left us with a legacy that placed Victoria at the pinnacle of Spanish Renaissance music-making but recently there are indications of a return to the view held by more contemporary scholars -Morales was their choice. This recording helps to re-establish that, in my own opinion, rightful place.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars sublime, February 13, 2001

By 

M. H. Page (S. San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Cristobal de Morales: Missa Si bona suscepimus / Tallis Scholars (Audio CD)

As usual the Tallis Scholars are at their superb and almost otherworldy best. I've said, probably too many times,no one can sing choral music as well as the English. This is my first exposure to the music of Cristobal de Morales, who is described as one of the greatest composers of the Spanish High Renaissance. For those that love choral music of this period, I most highly reccommend this recording.