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Reviewer: Alexandra Coghlan ‘Parrott’s relationship with this repertoire is a long and intimate one’ Barely 20 bars in length, who could have guessed that the 16th-century popular song ‘Western wynde, when wilt thou blow’ would yield such a musical legacy? Certainly not its anonymous author. Borrowed as the theme of Mass settings by Taverner, Tye and Sheppard, the verse even reappeared in the 20th century as the basis for a movement of Stravinsky’s Cantata. It’s this song that forms the keystone of this superb and wide-ranging recording by Andrew Parrott and his Taverner Choir & Players – less a recording of a Mass than a portrait of a period. As the first secular song to be adapted in England for sacred use, ‘Western wynde’ is a touchstone of its age, a musical portal Parrott uses thoughtfully to explore not just the liturgical polyphony and plainchant but also the courtly songs, dances and keyboard music of Taverner and his contemporaries, including William Cornysh the Younger and Henry VIII himself. Some of these works are interpolated between the Mass movements, a decision purists may find contentious but which makes for a much more satisfying listening experience, shaking the ear up with shifting textures and setting sacred against secular in satisfying friction. Andrew Parrott’s relationship with this repertoire is a long and intimate one, and his young vocal forces blend this experience and sense of longform musical architecture with a freshness of tone that favours a forthright directness in tutti sections – a more muscular Christianity than either The Tallis Scholars or The Sixteen find in their more otherworldly treatments. Verse sections do offer a more fluid, horizontal emphasis, and the freshness of these solo voices offers an effective contrast to songs performed by Emily Van Evera and Charles Daniels (‘Yow and I and Amyas’, ‘Wher be ye my love?’), where colours and emotions are more richly shaded. ‘Western Wind’ Mass by John Taverner & Court Music for Henry VIII Emily Van Evera sop Charles Daniels ten Taverner Choir & Players / Andrew Parrott Avie F AV2352 (5/16) Producer & Engineer Adrian Hunter 107 votes Instrumental numbers, including Hugh Aston’s ‘A Hornepype’ and Cornysh’s ‘Fa la sol’, are no afterthought, but a central part of this unusual disc’s appeal, with Steven Devine’s harpsichord contributions a particular highlight. This is a recording that speaks beyond the specialist Early Music echo-chamber, offering a vivid and fascinating musical distillation of one of England’s richest cultural eras. |
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