Virgin and Child: Music From the Baldwin Partbooks II
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TAVENER / FAYRFAX / TALLIS / SHEPPARD
Virgin and Child: Music From the Baldwin Partbooks II
Contrapunctus, Owen Rees
[ Signum / CD ]
Release Date: Friday 24 February 2017
This item is currently out of stock. It may take 6 or more weeks to obtain from when you place your order as this is a specialist product.
Early music consort Contrapunctus return to disc on Signum for the second release in their series centred on music of the Baldwin Partbooks (In the Midst of Life, SIGCD408). John Baldwin was a member of the choir of St George's chapel, Windsor, and his transcriptions during the 1570s and 80s create one of the greatest surviving collections of Marian polyphony, composed during the reigns of Henry VIII and Mary Tudor. This volume explores texts celebrating Mary as mother of God, and on the Virgin and her Child.
Contrapunctus, led by Owen Rees, couple powerful interpretations with pioneering scholarship. Currently Vocal Consort in Residence at Oxford University, the ensemble's first two recordings, Libera nos and In the Midst of Life, were both shortlisted for the Gramophone Early Music Award.
"The first track here is one of the most astonishing, sustained 18 minutes of polyphony you will ever hear: Contrapunctus realise the Gothic spans and arching phrases of Tallis's lavish Gaude gloriosa Dei mater with wonderful clarity and poise. This is their second CD devoted to the music from the Baldwin partbooks, an Oxford project bringing musicology and performance together; the superb singing fulfils every expectation (except perhaps that of variety). With crystal-clear sounds from the high sopranos, the repeated invocations of Robert Fayrfax's Ave Dei patris filia have a hypnotic quality, while the two shorter Robert White motets in honour of the Virgin Mary are very moving." The Guardian
" the consort's blend is natural rather than rigidly smooth, with beautiful transparency from the altos, a sonorous bass-line and a steady, secure pulse. The impression is of wandering through a sequence of chapels, some tall and dazzlingly bright…some strikingly dark and heavy" BBC Music Five Stars
Tracks:
Fayrfax:
Ave Dei patris filia
Sheppard, J:
Verbum caro factum est
Tallis:
Gaude gloriosa Dei mater
Magnificat for 5 voices
Videte miraculum
Taverner:
Mater Christi Sanctissima
White, Robert:
Tota pulchra es
Regina caeli
