The Cardinall's Musick: Performance Diary

Cardinall’s Musick BBC Music Magazine

In BBC Music Magazine, Kate Bolton give the recording 5 stars, saying: “Having previously explored English polyphony at the extremes of the 16th century – Cornysh, Fayrfax and Ludford at the beginning, Byrd at the end – The Cardinall’s Musick now bridges the gap with the enigmatic mid-century composer Robert Parsons. He lived through some of the most turbulent years of England’s religious and political history, and his life was tragically cut short when he drowned at a young age. So, while there are some serene works here, with soaring melismatic lines that hark back to the music of the Eton Choirbook, most of these pieces are sonorously scored for low voices and peppered with bitter dissonances, giving them a dark, plangent quality. Director Andrew Carwood draws earthy, visceral performances; the ensemble’s virile sound and Parsons’s sinewy polyphony are a far cry from what some critics describe as the ‘whitewashed’, English choral tradition. Carwood and his singers highlight the inherent drama of Parsons’s style, notably in O bone Jesu, with its changing textures, brilliant canons and expressive dissonances. The basses resonate magnificently in Peccantem me quotidie, in Holy Lord God Almighty and in the hauntingly austere Libera me, while, by contrast, the monumental Magnificat sounds radiant. Perhaps the crowning glory of the disc is the final Ave Maria, the slow and poignant unfolding of which echoes long in the memory. Hyperion’s detailed recording, swathed in the glowing acoustic of the Fitzalan Chapel, Arundel Castle, enhances these seraphic performances.”

Date: November 2011    

The Cardinall’s Musick win Recording of the Year at 2010 Gramophone Awards

This most coveted award took the room by surprise as The Cardinall’s Musick beat off competition from the world’s most celebrated conductors, soloists and opera companies to scoop the top title. This is only the second time in the 34-year history of the Gramophone Awards that an Early Music release has taken the most prestigious prize of the day.

This was the fourth time the group had won the Early Music Award at the ceremony, an award selected annually by critics for The Gramophone Magazine and various members of the industry, including retailers, broadcasters, arts administrators, and musicians. The Recording of the Year, however, was selected by a panel of critics from a shortlist of the sixteen category winners, which meant the Cardinall’s Musick beat the Royal Opera House, Glyndebourne Opera, and the HallÉ to the top prize!

It seems clear that the Recording of the Year award is keen to acknowledge the achievement of the entire series not just this final volume. Gramophone have been fulsome in their praise – ‘one of the most important recording projects of the last couple of decades … just as exciting as when Harnoncourt and Leonhardt finished their Bach Cantatas’. ‘A musical experience of vivid imagination, awe-inspiring concentration and, finally, resolution in a series that has become a glory of the early music catalogue’.

The award points to twenty years of music making by a loyal group of singing friends who by this thirteenth volume were able to approach the music with a ‘sense of soaked commitment and lived-in purpose’. It also marks the musicality, inspiration and imagination of Andrew Carwood, as well as the fine production standards of Martin Haskell, Jonathan Freeman-Attwood and Hyperion Records. Finally, it recognises William Byrd as ‘one of the greatest composers of all time, not just of England but of anywhere else’. The award and these recordings provide a fitting tribute to this most intellectually and emotionally satisfying composer.

“Uplifting” Palestrina and Allegri from The Cardinall’s Musick

Following their Gramophone Recording of the Year Award for 2010, The Cardinall’s Musick’s latest CD explores the music of Rome in the 16th and 17th centuries, the group turning its attention to composers including Palestrina and Allegri in the new recording Missa Cantantibus Organis. Directed by Andrew Carwood, the disc is already proving to be one of the finest recordings of the year and generating effusive praise from the critics.

this is all really exciting stuff and should be heard by anybody who cares about music of the late-16th century. David Fallows of Gramophone

Classic FM Magazine made the recording “Editor’s choice” saying “Carwood nails it – again” with reviewer Andrew Stewart going on to say that “these performers capture the creative confidence of Rome’s composing community in the decades either side of the 16th century’s turn” with performances of “exuberance and ensemble excellence… this album works like a finely tuned time machine. It’s hard to imagine how its contents could be better served on disc”.

Simon Heighes of International Record Review says that the “wonderful build-up in sonority is deftly managed by the singers” with “utter transparency giving way to rich harmony… thoroughly recommended”.

Berta Joncus of BBC Music Magazine (“March Choice – Choral & Song”) says about The Cardinall’s Musick that “the vocalists use declamation to emote, transporting the listener from sorrow to transcendent joy” adding that “this recording’s breadth of moods, devices and styles is refreshing”.

Stephen Pritchard of The Observer says “The chief delight of this new treasure from The Cardinall’s Musick is not the titular Miserere but the Missa Cantantibus Organis, an extraordinary, 12 part mass by seven composers, written as a tribute to Cecilia, patron saint of music … sung here with the brilliance and clarity we have come to expect from this outstanding ensemble”.

Claudine Nightingale of Choir&Organ says that “The Cardinall’s Musick offers a sumptuous body of sound that revives the well-known Miserere and brings to life the multiple-author Mass”.

Paul Gent of The Telegraph says that “The Cardinall’s Musick perform it with their usual refinement”
You can hear The Cardinall’s Musick performing an exciting Roman programme, including works by Palestrina and Allegri, at the Wigmore Hall on June 24th this year. For more info, visit Wigmore Hall’s website.

New Guerrero recording is ‘essential listening’ – Gramophone Editor’s Choice.

Another wonderfully received Hyperion CD, with The Cardinall’s Musick now turning their talents to the Iberian master, Francisco Guerrero with a disc centred around his magnificent Missa Congratulamini mihi.

Gramophone have made it their Editor’s Choice in the October issue, editor James Inverne commenting that ‘The Cardinall’s Musick have only just completed their wonderful Byrd project and here they are with this first-rate exploration of the music of Guerrero … the singers show verve and polish in equal measure’. Reviewer Fabrice Fitch goes on to say ‘Andrew Carwood’s singers respond with an equal measure of buoyancy and vigour … anyone interested in the siglo de oro will regard this as essential listening’.

Andrew Clements in the Guardian also loves the new recording saying the pieces ‘are delivered with the combination of superb ensemble, and perfectly characterised vocal lines that is the persistent hallmark of this outstanding group; the sound is rich, full and gently resonant’.

‘the leading exponent of Renaissance music, retaining the essential quality of individual vocal timbres that contribute to a refined, characterful mix and with a polish that is second to none’ going on to say that ‘the entire disc, with various shorter pieces as complements, is captivating in its fluency and expressive power’ Geoffrey Norris (Telegraph).

‘sung with breathtaking subtleties of light and shade … do not wait until next Easter to acquire this disc!’Early Music Today

Music-web International have rounded things off commenting that ‘Once again we are indebted to Hyperion and the Cardinall’s Musick, this time for a fine recording …. The singing, recording and presentation are every bit as good as one would expect from this source’.

Nicholas Ludford Edition

The four discs of music by Nicholas Ludford (c.1485–1557) was the first recording project undertaken by The Cardinall’s Musick and ASV Records. Once thought to have been a shadowy figure about whom we know nothing, thanks to the work of David Skinner, we now can place him as the pre-eminent composer of the last days of pre-Reformation England and inheritor of the mantel of Robert Fayrfax. With his large number of festal masses, his cycle of Lady Masses, two Magnificats and many antiphons he was one of the most prolific writers of his age. His music, which is of the highest quality, is brought to life for the first time in these recordings.

William Byrd Edition

The Cardinall’s Musick have now completed of one of the most exciting early music recording projects of all time. A comprehensive project to examine the works of one of England’s greatest composers – William Byrd (c.1540–1623). David Skinner has produced new editions of all the early manuscript works and has been doing redoubtable work into Byrd’s life. Andrew Carwood and The Cardinall’s Musick have recorded the Latin Church music, starting with the manuscript works, then the Cantiones Sacrae of 1575, 1589 and 1591 and the three masses. Interspersed with these are the motets from the two books of Gradualia from 1605 and 1607 presented, for the first time, in liturgically appropriate units.

Music at All Souls, Oxford The Lancastrians to the Tudors

This comprehensive anthology gives an overview of nearly two hundred years of music-making connected with All Souls College, Oxford. From the simple three part writing of Henry V to the huge architectural masterpiece that is Davy’s O Domine caeli terreque (apparently written in the course of one day): from the simplicity of Merbecke’s Funeral Sentences to the emotional power of the White Lamentations, this collection presents a unique part of musical history together with the story of one of Oxford’s most famous colleges.

… as fine an example of the glories of English choral tradition as you’re likely to find, sung by recognised leaders in the field. Snap it up immediately. THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY

Missa Gaudeamus Missa Pro victoria. Motets

Tomás Luis de Victoria mixes the order and beauty of sixteenth-century Italian writing with the passion and fervour of Spanish music. This disc presents two sides of his character, one serious and devotional (Missa Gaudeamus), the other fun and entertaining (Missa Pro Victoria): one is based on a sonorous motet by Morales and the other on a chanson by Jannequin. Victoria has kept the characters of each piece but also infused the music with his own genius. Also here is a selection of motets in honour of the saints of the Church. Victoria may not have written any secular music during his life but there is more than a hint of madrigal writing in his descriptions of the lives of these remarkable people.

There are so many high spots on this disc that it is impossible to mention them all… This superbly sung recording affords an unmissable opportunity. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. GRAMOPHONE

Gaude gloriosa Latin Church Music

2005 saw the celebrations for the five hundredth anniversary of the birth of the great English composer, Thomas Tallis. Varied and versatile, he survived and produced excellent music throughout the reigns of four extraordinarily volatile and wilful Tudor monarchs. This disc is centred around his monumental antiphon Gaude gloriosa – a musical and dramatic tour de force. Other highlights inclde the stunningly descriptive Suscipe quaeso sung here at written pitch with a low and sonorous scoring, and the brilliant Magnificat and Nunc dimittis for five voices.

This superbly sung selection of some of his finest Latin church music will surely prove to be one of Tallis’s very best 500th birthday presents.THE DAILY TELEGRAPH

Magnificats & motets

The music of Hieronymus Praetorius is as assured, expressive and original as the Dürer image which adorns the CD cover. Yet this fine composer is much less well-known than his namesake (but not relation) Michael Praetorius. His sophisticated collection of works are written in a variety of forms including the jubilant Venetian polychoral style. The disc contains Praetorius’s second Magnificat quinti toni to which are attached polyphonic arrangements of the popular medieval tunes Joseph, lieber Joseph mein and In dulci iubilo. This later setting of the fifth-tone Magnificat is Praetorius’s masterpiece.

Hieronymus Praetorius gains his place in the sun with this outstanding release. CLASSIC FM MAGAZINE

Stabat mater Music for Holy Week & Easter

A disc which traces the emotion and joy of Holy Week and Easter by the most famous of all sixteenth-century composers, Giovanni Perluigi da Palestrina. His stunningly moving setting of the Stabat mater is set alongside dramatic descriptions of the resurrection and shows Palestrina to be more emotional and daring a composer than is usually thought. Here also you can see Palestrina using a wariety of styles, from conservative sounding polyphony for men’ voices to vibrant new pieces for double choir where rhythm and dialogue are all important.

On this beautifully sung and recorded disc Andrew Carwood’s inspired programme planning uses motets and other settings to tell the Holy Week and Easter story … A ‘must buy’ – especially for anyone who thinks of Palestrina as just an esoteric composer of masses. EARLY MUSIC REVIEW 2003

Complete Latin Church Music

The composer John Merbecke is perhaps best known for his setting of the words from the Book of Common Prayer still sung in many churches to this day. But before his Protestant days he was a committed Catholic and wrote music in the grand pre-Reformation style. Here for the first time on disc is his monumental Missa Per arma justitie and two substantial votive antiphons: his complete Latin output left to us after the ravages of time.

… this CD is a complete revelation … the choir is superb throughout. GRAMOPHONE

Missa Surge propera Canticum canticorum

Lassus is well known as a composer whose imagination was fired by the texts that he set. For that reason, grouping together all of his motets which use the Song of Songs (Canticum canticorum) provides an excellent set of compostions. Lassus is obviously stirred by the sensual texts, concerned with the expression of human love in a spiritual context. The disc also contains the sweeping and sonorous Missa Surge propera and an eight-part Magnificat on the fourth tone.

Gorgeous ensemble tone, sensitive and exciting musical direction and – most importantly – sheer soul and grit. CHOIR & ORGAN (5 STARS)

Missa Congratulamini mihi

The main work on this disc is the gloriously sunny and joyful Missa Congratulamini mihi. Based on an Easter motet by Crecquillon (also recorded here), it is full of the voluptuous exuberance of the Paschal season. The five-part texture, with two treble parts, adds to the shining sound. Also included are a number of Easter motets. Maria Magdalena et altera Maria and Post dies octo are highly descriptive, narrative works, highly contrasted in mood and texture. The four other pieces on this disc show various facets of Guerrero’s mastery. Dum esset rex (in honour of Mary Magdalene) is similar to a spiritual madrigal whilst the eight-part Ave Maria is a sonorous double-choir plea to the Virgin.

This entire disc is captivating in its fluency and expressive power.THE DAILY TELEGRAPH

Allegri: Miserere mei, Deus Missa Cantantibus organis

This disc features music from late sixteenth-century Rome and ranges from Allegri’s Miserere, surely the best-known and best-loved work of this period, to a rarely-performed or recorded oddity. Seven Roman musicians came together (or were brought together) to write a Mass-setting where they each contributed different sections. The resulting work, the twelve-voice Missa Cantantibus organis, is a tribute both to Cecilia (the patron saint of music) and to Palestrina. The seven composers each take themes found in Palestrina’s motet of the same name and use them as the starting point for their new compositions. Palestrina himself is among the seven, with Giovanni Andrea Dragoni, Ruggiero Giovannelli, Curzio Mancini, Prospero Santini, Francesco Soriano and Annibale Stabile being the other six. All seven composers were prominent maestri in Rome and most appear to have had contact with Palestrina either as choristers or pupils.

This is all really exciting stuff and should be heard by anybody who cares about music of the late-16th century. GRAMOPHONE

Missa Videte miraculum Ave cujus conceptio Plainsong Propers for the Purification

This is the first in our series devoted to the unsung genius of Nicholas Ludford. This once shadowy composer has now been brought into the limelight through the research work of Dr David Skinner and a set of four discs of his music. The Missa Videte miraculum is unusual in being scored for two treble voices, giving the piece an exuberance and brilliance which sets Ludford apart from his contemporaries. The Mass is set within the context of plainsong for the Feast of the Purification, and the disc is completed by Ludford’s setting of the popular text Ave cujus conceptio.

… this outstanding release deserves the heartiest acclaim. CD REVIEW

… would it be pushing the boat out too far to say the music is sublime? I think not. GRAMOPHONE

Missa Benedicta Magnificat Benedicta Plainsong Propers for the Assumption

In this the second disc devoted to the works of Nicholas Ludford, the Missa Benedicta could not be more contrasting to our first issue. In the Missa Videte miraculum, Ludford uses two equal treble parts: in the Missa Benedicta he uses two equal low bass parts – again almost unique in this period. The Mass has a dark, sonorous, brooding quality which is offset by the chant for the Feast of the Assumption. The Magnificat Benedicta shares the same scoring and motifs as the Mass.

The polyphony is managed with great serenity, and flows easily with an unforced vocal timbre. CLASSIC CD

Missa Christi virgo dilectissima Domine Jesu Christe Plainsong Propers for the Annunciation

The Missa Christi virgo dilectissima presents Ludford’s most meditative and serene setting (not unlike the Missa O bone Jesu by Fayrfax recorded on CDGAU184). It is scored for the more usual combination of five voices, and has been set in the context of the Mass of the Annunciation. Completing the disc is the Jesus antiphon Domine Jesu Christe, an excellent example of Ludford’s style – a style which clearly points the way to new methods in English composition.

… an early music ensemble to be reckoned with; technically superlative, yet also demonstrating a total musical involvement and sympathy with the works. FANFARE MAGAZINE

Missa Lapidaverunt Stephanum Ave Maria ancilla Trinitatis Plainsong Propers for the Feast of S. Stephen

This disc represents the last in the series devoted to the works of Nicholas Ludford. His setting of the Missa Lapidaverunt Stephanum uses a melody from the Feast of S. Stephen and this may be particularly important in Ludford’s life as he held the post of ‘verger’ at the Royal Chapel of S. Stephen in Westminster. Scored for five voices, it is a euphonious and gentle setting. Ave Maria ancilla Trinitatis sets a florid pre-Reformation text in honour of the Virgin Mary.

[This] fourth disc in Carwood’s splendid series… The performances, fresh and stylish, are punctuated by apt plainsong. THE GUARDIAN

Missa O quam glorifica Ave Dei patris filia

This is the first of five discs devoted to the complete works of one of England’s greatest composers, Robert Fayrfax. The recording made such an impact when it was released in 1995 that it came away from that year’s Gramophone Awards having won the Early Music Category. The Missa O quam glorifica is one of the most complex masses of the period. Probably written as part of Fayrfax’s submission to the University of Cambridge, it is a piece designed to show exactly how superb a composer he was. Also included is the setting of the popular text Ave Dei patris filia and three secular songs designed for use in the court.

The Cardinall’s Musick in magnificent form … beautifully balanced and radiant sound. CLASSIC CD