Tallis: Derelinquat impius

“Clare Wilkinson's pure Mezzo voice emerges from the mists of time in the opening antiphon by Talllis, sustaining and beautifully articulating the text. …the Rose Consort play in a sublimely unfussy, unfettered manner worthy of the music.” Gramophone Magazine, September 2008

‘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. It is hard to imagine a better performance of the magnificent six-part votive antiphon Gaude gloriosa’ (The Daily Telegraph)

“This, the third volume of the survey by The Tallis Scholars of the music of the Tudor composer, Thomas Tallis, contains the well-known Lamentations, eight motets, and the extended motet Salve intemerata virgo. The Lamentations and motets are typical of the style of late Renaissance English composers. The overall mood is one of considerable austerity and their simplicity is indicative of the probability of their having been written for the private use of loyal Catholics rather than for formal ritual. Salve intemeratavirgo, on the other hand, looks back to the glories of the late 15th century. In particular, Tallis's use of the phrygian mode gives the work as a whole a strong sense of the medieval. Despite this disparity of styles the Tallis Scholars acquit themselves, as always, with great distinction. In the Lamentations and motets they achieve an appropriate sense of intimacy, while in Salve intermerata virgo they rise fully to the challenges of one of the more extended and demanding examples of Tudor choral composition. In addition the formidable challenges which this latter work sets for the conductor, such as the sense of pace, variation of dynamics, and overall architecture of the work, are all extremely well handled by Peter Phillips.
The recording is very fine.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Contrasts abound: Byrd’s florid three-section Tribue Domine is almost Marian in its vastness, while Tallis’s hymn setting O nata lux de lumine is brevity itself...The dozen singers perform expressively and blend beautifully throughout, while Skinner, who adopts a commonsense approach to pitch standards, injects passion into every note.” Sunday Times, 30th January 2011 ****

“They use solo voices throughout, mixed voices with a fairly open sound that brings with it more vibrato than we are used to hearing in such music nowadays...That results in performances that are refreshingly free of self-indulgence. Some of the big Byrd pieces in particular are very good indeed.” Gramophone Magazine, March 2011

“The prevailing mood is penitential, but the pieces are never dull; there's much delight to be had in listening to the way the individual voice parts weave in and out...Skinner gets his singers to bring [the false relations] out so that they send shivers down your spine...[He] shapes the music extremely well.” Classic FM Magazine, March 2011 ****

“Homophonic passages impress with their splendour, enriched here by the chestnut hues of basses William Gaunt and Robert Macdonald. The clarity of line lays bare the ingenuity of counterpoint, no matter how thick the texture becomes - a formidable achievement in Byrd's 'double imitation' motets.” BBC Music Magazine, March 2011 ***

“This is the first time the Cantiones Sacrae has been recorded complete and 'in the original order intended by the composers themselves'...An auspicious beginning to a mighty undertaking.” International Record Review, May 2011

“Volume 7 of Chapelle du Roi's complete series of Tallis recordings, is a further witness to the composer's consummate command of his art, in whatever religious or political situation he found himself at each changing period of his life. It might seem puzzling that Elizabeth, in 1575, should sanction the publication of Tallis's and Byrd's Cantiones sacrae, but she apparently enjoyed hearing Latin-texted music in her private chapel, and many of the prayers would have been familiar from her childhood.
Dixon makes a number of interesting points.
He demonstrates Tallis's use of older material: for example, the Latin Absterge Domine, side by side with its later English contrafactum Discomfortthem, O Lord. He shows how five-voice scoring might be used for an all-male ensemble, or privately in, say, a recusant family situation, with ladies on the top line (In ieiunio et fletu). Tallis's craftsmanship is further revealed in his two through-composed psalms, Domine, quis habitabit and Laudate Dominum, which, while adhering to 16th-century principles of syllabic word-setting, are varied enough to relieve the inevitable tedium. We hear finally, Dixon's masterly interpretation of Spem in alium 'in the round' – or 'in horseshoe formation' – possibly the Chapelle's highest achievement to date.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010