Rating: 2/5
Review:
A poor recording
I’m afraid I don’t like this recording at all. I have tried both
this and Ars Antiqua de Paris’s recording of de la Rue’s Missa
Puer natus est nobis and my response to both has been very similar.
To put it bluntly,
the singers aren’t very good, and nor is the direction. There is
almost nothing in the way of blend or, more importantly, balance so
the impression is of a group of people doing their own thing with
little reference to anyone else – which entirely negates much of
the point of polyphony. The singers themselves sound tentative to
the point of being scared much of the time, intonation is
occasionally dodgy, there is some intrusive vibrato...it just sounds
pretty grim to me.
I don’t like to be
so critical, but I really think this is a poor recording which does
no justice to the music. De la Rue was a wonderful composer and
there are some excellent recordings of his work; this isn’t one of
them. My advice is to try some of the fine recordings by The Clerk’s
Group, Henry’s Eight, Amarcord, Gothic Voices and others and to
leave this one well alone.
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