Customer Reviews

Cristobal de Morales: Missa Si bona suscepimus / Tallis Scholars

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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.

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.