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Felipe de Magelhães was a fellow student at Évora of Duarte Lobo and Manuel Cardoso, whose names are possibly better known today. These two Masses are based on motets by Guerrero and Manchicourt, composers linked with the Spanish Royal Court chapel; the programme is completed by a Magnificat setting between the Masses and two motets bookending the whole. (Although the music has been transcribed afresh by members of the ensemble, most of it has long been available in modern edition.) This is one of the most satisfying of Cupertinos’s programmes, the Missa Veni Domine bright and outgoing, the Missa Vere Dominus more subdued and veiled, and the Magnificat a lively foil to both. The appearance of the original text of Guerrero’s motet in the final Agnus Dei of the Missa Veni Domine is an imaginative touch in line with the view of the final Mass section as a moment of revelation.
Cupertinos’s house style is the same as it was when I reviewed their first recording (1/19); the occasional technical reservations I expressed then are even less noticeable. That said, the very bright and resonant acoustic, consistently high tessitura and emphasis on a bloomy choral sound are all redolent of a highly typified approach to Renaissance music, where all is euphony and asperity is largely absent. (The lower centre of gravity in the Missa Vere Dominus means that the middle voices don’t always project quite as effectively.) But in addition, like other prominent ensembles, Cupertinos identify themselves (so far exclusively) with a repertory tightly circumscribed in time, place and style. There is enough first-rate Portuguese polyphony to keep them busy (how long before they tackle Cardoso?), but one wonders quite in what direction they will develop. That may be a discussion for another time; for now, they carry on as they began, with polish and dedication, and fresh enough a sound to carry the day. |
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