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Reviewer:
Edward Breen All roads lead to Josquin, even those routed through the Iberian peninsula. This superb new recording from Owen Rees and Contrapunctus charts a key way in which Josquin’s influence continued to mushroom after his own prolific career by exploring ostinato technique – the repeated use of a musical motto as binding agent in the polyphonic texture – through motets by Morales (c1500-1553) and Guerrero (1528-99) alongside the broad and statuesque Missa Gaudeamus of Victoria (1548-1611). The Gaudeamus thread begins with Morales’s Jubilate Deo omnis terra, which contains a six-note motto from the Gaudeamus plainchant. Contrapunctus typically tend towards an overall bright, light style with a prominent and expressive alto core which can be both searing and thrilling at points of heightened emotion. In the Spanish repertoire their sound is fuller and a little warmer than on previous releases – indeed, with such a thrilling focus from countertenors Rory McCleery and Matthew Venner that this ensemble mirrors the vocal balance found on early discs by The Sixteen. The tenors, too, enjoy expressive moments in the spotlight, particularly in Morales’s motet, where the rising and repeating motto is theirs. This same rising motto is found in the top voices of Victoria’s Missa Gaudeamus, an elongated, arching phrase which Rees links to Josquin’s language. More polished in this performance but slightly more reserved than the Lay Clerks of Westminster Cathedral under Matthew Martin (Hyperion, 9/09), the smouldering slow-burn approach of Contrapunctus continues to pay dividends throughout this Mass. What is lost from the Westminster Cathedral performance in terms of vocal heft and sheer thrilling energetic uplift is gained in finesse and brilliant sheen. Guerrero’s exquisite Ave virgo sanctissima flows with throbbing beauty but ultimately this impassioned motet requires a larger ensemble to create the sheer thrilling sound required at ‘Salve semper gloriosa’. Both Westminster Cathedral under David Hill (Hyperion, 11/85, 3/87) and the Monteverdi Choir under John Eliot Gardiner (SDG, 6/05) find a richer beauty in slower tempos and larger forces. |
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