Reviews
The Daily Telegraph (January 1997)
BYRD: MASS FOR FIVE VOICES / TALLIS: LAMENTATIONS
This disc is the first in a projected series by the Sarum Consort for ASV's budget label. Three years old, the choir is directed by Andrew Mackay, who has sung for Richard Marlow, Sir David Willcocks and Philip Ledger - quite a pedigree.
The approach seems to me to happily reconcile the warmth of the traditional English choral sound with the high standards and tonal purity introduced by the collegiate choirs, and the freshness of the past twenty years of scholar-directed professional choirs. Tempos are flowing, vibrato is sparing and articulation clean, and there is a great sense of involvement.
The humanity of the music-making is marginally better suited to Tallis's outgoing style than Byrd's more contemplative personality, but the final section of Byrd's Gloria seems to clamour for contact with the Lord. A Sarum Consort crescendo is a glorious thing, and the wide dynamic range of the recording allows one to experience it to the full.
Penguin Guide to Compact Discs (1999) (*** awarded)
BYRD: 13 MOTETS FROM CANTIONES SACRAE
The Sarum Consort is a finely balanced and blended group, admirably directed by Andrew Mackay, whose pacing and control of light and shade cannot be faulted. The recording, made in the ideal acoustic of Milton Abbey, is clear, but rich in choral ambience. Excellent documentation, with full texts and translations, make this a first-rate bargain.
Gramophone (May 1998)
BYRD: 13 MOTETS FROM CANTIONES SACRAE
This new recording from a relatively recently formed vocal group - the 16-voice Sarum Consort first appeared in 1992 - presents a selection of motets from Byrd's three collections, 1575, 1589 and 1591. The choice includes pieces as diverse as the great six-part Tribue, Domine, an intensely fervent statement of Christian belief, the short and brilliant five-part Easter versicle In resurrectione tua, with its tricky little quaver runs just under control, and the splendid 1591 Salve regina, slowly flowing with long melismatic passages and closely-locking imitations.
For comparison we have New College, Oxford's selection from the 1575 Cantiones, two of which - Tribue, Domine and the Vespers hymn setting O lux, beata Trinitas - overlap with two of the Sarum Consort's choice. In general, the Sarum Consort adopt faster tempos, crisper rhythms - just listen to their Haec Dies - and this gives their performance a feeling of greater urgency than that of New College. J.S.Bach is reputed to have once remarked that he liked playing the viola because he then found himself "in the middle of things". A similar impression of being right 'inside the music' is generated by the Sarum Consort's performance, and it is exhilarating. By contrast, the acoustic of the New College chapel is richer and deeper than that of Milton Abbey, and much as I enjoyed the flow and speed of Sarum, I have a hunch that the slower New College tempos were likely to have been nearer to those of Byrd himself.
The Independent (February 1998)
BYRD: 13 MOTETS FROM CANTIONES SACRAE
Renaissance choral music no longer needs the hard sell. Palestrina, Victoria, Lassus, Cipriano de Rore - all have been big retail successes. Whether that's for the quality of the musical thinking, or for a nostalgic evocation of a mythical Age of Faith, or just for the sheer beauty of the sound, isn't easy to say. But one of the striking things (for me) about William Byrd, the greatest church composer before Henry Purcell, is how directly his finest music speaks across the centuries. There's a unique balance between sublime architectural proportion, superb craft and intensity of feeling, whether in the aspiring lines and subtle shading of "Ne irascaris" ("Be not angry any more, O Lord"), or the gravity-defying exultation of "O lux beata trinitas" ("O light, O blessed Trinity"). If this is still unexplored territory for you, this disc is an excellent place to start. There are no scholarly innovations here, just secure, lively, imaginative and very expressive singing, sympathetically recorded.
The programme not only combines 13 of Byrd's finest short church pieces, it contrasts them beautifully, so that each motet seems to open a door on something new. The joyous, elegantly intricate "Haec dies" ("This is the day which the Lord hath made") is the perfect finale - the kind that makes you want to go back to the beginning and start all over again.
BBC Music Magazine (December 2001)
PHILIPS:CANTIONES SACRAE QUINIS VOCIBUS
Peter Philips, sometime (maybe) pupil of Byrd, was like his probable mentor a Catholic. Unlike Byrd, however, he enjoyed no special favour at court, and fled England for Rome, a period of travel, and finally settlement in Antwerp, via arrest in Amsterdam on grounds of being involved in a plot to assassinate Elizabeth I. Byrd's influence, and that of European composers in whose ambit he worked for so many years, shows in the 18 sublime and varied motets taken from his 1612 Cantiones sacrae. Often he illustrates his texts with the same poignancy and ingenuity as does Byrd. The booklet notes rightly highlight, for instance, the lovely 'Mulieres sedentes', whose static opening harmonies signify the sedentary state of the weeping women, and whose simple downward motif - obvious, maybe, but no less effective for that - denotes their weeping. Completely contrasting in atmosphere are the exultant rising phrases of 'Surgens Jesus', while often - as in 'Factum est silentium' - there is a madrigalian immediacy and variety in Philips's response to text. "O crux splendidior' exhibits prayerful meditation, 'Ave verum corpus' takes a similar homophonic approach to Byrd's famous setting, 'O nomen Jesu' radiates a rapt reverence, and so on, until the final, utterly sublime 'Hodie Beata Virgo Maria', whose ending suggests a circle of eternity. Under the direction of Andrew Mackay, the Sarum Consort sings everything with poised intensity and does this lovely, underrated music every possible justice.