Customer Reviews

The William Byrd Edition, Vol. 5: The Masses

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The music of William Byrd (c.1535/40 - 1623) was written in a paranoid and oppressive environment where the slightest gesture of pro-Catholicism could in the wrong context lead to imprisonment, torture and execution. Some even proposed taking away children from Catholic families to prevent them from passing on their beliefs to their offspring. The celebration of the Catholic mass too was forbidden, though still practiced in great fear and secrecy. It is into such a social environment that these works were born to be sung in privacy for fear of being discovered. The results are work of the greatest intimacy, darkness and mysticism - works that are arguably the greatest to have ever have flowed from the pen of an English composer. Indeed, Byrd is the yardstick by which all other English composers should be measured in the same way that Shakespeare is the yardstick for English literature.

The Cardinall's Musick are yet another group whose founder can be traced back to Cambridge. Andrew Carwood founded the group in 1989, which under his direction has developed a style of choral singing characterised by an unusually forthright and full-blooded approach, at least when compared to other groups originating out of Cambridge. In an age with so many Oxbridge choirs recording music by countless semi-obscure English composers, always to rapturous praise by English reviewers, it is easy to lose interest in this self-absorbed local scene of questionable international significance. Yet, whether you read German, French or Franco-Flemish commentators on music of the Renaissance, Byrd is as unquestionably accepted as a major composer as Shakespeare is as a major writer.

Perhaps few recordings of Byrd's music could illustrate this composer's ability as this collection of Latin masses - a musical form effectively defunct in post-Reformation England. The performances by the Cardinall's Musick capture the inner logic, and yet irresistible expressive drive on the lines in the performances that Byrd commanded. For even if Byrd lacks the effortless mellifluousness of Lassus or Palestrina's hushed sense of perfection, his music still has vigorous character. So performances as strong as those in the Byrd Edition here are particularly highly welcome.

Brian Robbins writing in Goldberg early music magazine thought that:

"This is the disc those not familiar with Byrd should make for first. Even those who are should add it to their collection as an urgent priority."

He awarded it the Goldberg five stars rating. However, like other English critic he tends to give nearly all of the Cardinall's music recordings a five star rating. A more honest appraisal was that by the American critic David Vernier:

"The sound is surprisingly timid and lacking in depth. Although there are some nice interpretive touches here involving special emphases, inflections, and other expressive nuances, as a whole the program just doesn't `fly'. Stick with the Tallis Scholars."

I think he was put off by the rather boxy and dry sound quality typical of all ASV recordings. The problem may be due to a substandard DA converter or poor transfer technology. ASV desperately need to upgrade if they can afford it. Still, I thought the 7/6 (for interpretation/sound quality) rating was slightly harsh for there are many interpretative felicities here that deserve recognition, particularly the forthright phrasing. Even the sound too is above average compared to other ASV releases - such as their Lassus CD.

Recommendable, although the Tallis Scholars' recording has definitely better sound (amongst the best ever afforded to them) and their interpretation must be counted as amongst their finest.

I got to meet conductor David Skinner while studying at Oxford two summers ago; I found him to be a greatly talented musician and teacher. At a performance of the Cardinall's Musick in Fartheringhay (in a small Renaissance chapel by the castle), he conducted his male chorus so beautifully that it was all I could do to stare at the unstained glass and try hard not to cry. William Byrd was slightly younger than Elizabeth Tudor, and died in 1623. He is arguably the best of English Renaissance performances. His music is simple yet profound, fragile yet overpowering. It's music to examine your soul to.

I am neither a Byrd scholar nor a person who normally writes critiques for
recordings. I would like to highly recommend this recording as being a
wonderful, highly charged reading of these three masses. I have performed
all three masses in various settings, but Andrew Carwood's choice of warm
and vibrant colors for the masses is both unusual and very thrilling. If
you prefer the etheral color of many who interpret these masses, you may
not appreciate the recording, but if you are one who either regularly
practices the liturgy, or who enjoys a passionate reading of these texts,
I think you will be truly delighted with the disk.

It sounds as if each of the singers takes full responsibility for
adequately presenting each of the texts in the woven lines of Byrd's
settings, and for communicating the passion of these texts to those who
might not understand the Latin, but who can perceive the mystery of faith
hidden therein. The colors added to each text are appropriate to the
differing texts, robust "Gloria", tender and pleading "Kyrie" and "Agnus
Dei", ethereal chorus of the angels and saints for each "Sanctus", and the
dramatic journey of Christ on earth and in heaven in the"Credo", all so
expressively interpreted brought this devout Lutheran to tears at each
listening.

Whether you are an affficionado of beautiful music or one for whom the texts
may have a more personal significance, I commend this album to you. The
notes are very well done, informative but written in an engaging manner. If
this isn't enough Byrd for you, The Cardinall's Musick is recording all of
the works of William Byrd, quite an addition to the classical music
library. The organ works of William Byrd which are inserted between each of
the mass settings is a brilliant touch, as your ears are refreshed to hear
each mass on its own. Well done!

If there is any fault with this disc I can't find it. I have owned it for years now and I still play it regularly and with immense pleasure. It is the fifth volume of The Cardinall's Musick's Byrd Edition (currently up to Volume 12 at the time of writing this). Every disc in the series is a gem and this one is one of the very best.

Byrd's three Mass settings are a wonderfully beautiful statement of faith by one of England's truly great composers - a Catholic in Elizabeth's militantly Protestant England. They were written to be sung in secret in private houses and the Three- and Four-Voice Masses in particular have a very personal, intimate feel. The overall effect is simply lovely, particularly in these performances.

The Cardinall's Musick are now well established as one of the world's finest Renaissance vocal ensembles, and this disc shows why. They have a beautiful, resonant sound, flawless intonation and a wonderful empathy with the music, bringing out both its sheer loveliness and its relationship to the text with a consummate skill of which the listener is never consciously aware, and leaving us with the feeling of a truly beautiful, profound musical experience.

This also disc comes with extremely interesting and scholarly notes. If you're looking for somewhere to start with William Byrd you couldn't do better than this disc in my view, and even if you already have recordings of these masses (as I did when I bought it) I'd recommend it very warmly. It is simply sublime.

The choral music of Tudor England includes some absolute gems. William Byrd's Masses are among them. Perhaps not everyone's cup of tea as there is a lack of drama, something that had not transferred itself from secular music to sacred. To me, they seem to represent a half-way house between Gregorian chant and the Baroque composers. Having said that, they have an ethereal, placid beauty, which is awesome to listen to. Dim the lights, sit in your listening chair and put this on - and you will be transported back to another place and time. The quality of the recording is excellent.

I have had the Tallis Scholars' version for some time. I always thought the Tallis Scholars hard to beat. Which is better? They are both wonderful! It is an insult to music-making of this quality to try to categorise it as "good" and "less good". I have to have them both.

After hearing volume ten of The Cardinall's Musick recordings of the complete works of William Byrd (1540-1623), I rushed to order several other volumes. Alas, my expectations were too high. Volume thirteen, which I reviewed recently, was decidedly inadequate in basics... in tuning, to be blunt. This volume five recording of three masses by the Catholic Byrd, perhaps written for risky clandestine services that certainly were occurring throughout England during Byrd's adulthood, is better than 13 but not as polished as 10. There are three masses on the CD, in four voices, three voices, and five voices. Also included are three substantial pieces for organ, two Fantasias and a Voluntary; the organ pieces are excellent, and excellently played by David Skinner.

The best performance by far of the three masses is the second, Byrd's Mass for Three Voices, sung here SAT, two on a part, with women's voce on the superius. The two sopranos, Carys Lane and Rebecca Outram, match their attacks and timbres very tightly, and sound rather like the young men must have, who would have sung this music in Byrd's world. Three-part music of the late Renaissance preserved some features of earlier polyphony; the interest is less in chordal harmonies and more in horizontal rhythmic/melodic interweaving. This is a surprisingly confident, sunny setting of the ordinaries of the Mass, considering the threats that abounded for Catholics in protestant England, more like dancing than surreptitious and treasonable devotion.

The Mass for Four Voices, on the other hand, is dismally sung -- ragged in ensemble and tuning, awkward in the balance of voices, and very much what another reviewer has called "boxy" in sound quality.

The Mass for Five Voices is one of William Byrd's most superb compositions, as close as any composer of the era came to a completely through-composed, unified conception of the Mass. The Cardinall's Musick performs it two on a part also, but with better balance of voices. Yes, the sound is 'boxy' -- whatever that really means -- but resplendent with ringing sonorities. I might have wished for a little less 'measured' feeling -- less waving of the conductor's baton, I suppose -- and more expressive rhetorical independence in the polyphonic sections, but the homophonic portions are lush enough to give the whole performance an affect of majesty.

So ... Two out three that I will look forward to hearing again. That seems about four stars worth, in relation to the price.