Amazon.ca
The Cardinall's Musick's status as one of the best of Britain's. many excellent small professional
a cappella choirs specialising. in the music of the Renaissance, established by their enterprising. rediscoveries of the music of Nicholas Ludford, was firmly established. by this award-winning disc, the first in their five-volume series of the complete works of another English pre-Reformation master (and perhaps the greatest),Robert Fayrfax. The 50-minute Mass
O quam glorifica is the piece Fayrfax wrote for his doctorate in 1504, and accordingly is. deliberately complex and stocked with contrapuntal and rhythmic ingenuities. Fortunately, it is also a work of great beauty, showing plenty of variety and memorably coloured by the distinctive writing for upper voices which is so characteristic of English music of the time. The performance by this 16-strong mixed-voice choir is both heartfelt and immaculately executed, striking just the right balance between clarity and weight of sound, in which it is helped by a lucid recording made in the chapel of Arundel Castle. The disc also includes a substantial motet,
Ave Dei patris filia, as well as a trio of English secular songs expertly sung one-to-a-part. In every way this is a state-of-the-art release for this repertoire. --
Lindsay Kemp
