The singing on this release by Oxford University's one-voice-per-part Marian Consort is very strong. The group follows in the footsteps of the Tallis Scholars, with a clean, dispassionate style and a focus on sacred music of the High Renaissance. The choice of composers is yet a stronger reason to investigate the album: director Rory McCleery offers music by two Renaissance composers, Jean Mouton and Cristóbal de Morales, who were admired in their own time but whom history has consigned to secondary roles. The Morales Missa ...
Read More
The singing on this release by Oxford University's one-voice-per-part Marian Consort is very strong. The group follows in the footsteps of the Tallis Scholars, with a clean, dispassionate style and a focus on sacred music of the High Renaissance. The choice of composers is yet a stronger reason to investigate the album: director Rory McCleery offers music by two Renaissance composers, Jean Mouton and Cristóbal de Morales, who were admired in their own time but whom history has consigned to secondary roles. The Morales Missa Quaeramus cum pastoribus is broken up with motets so as to suggest its liturgical use without being over-literal about it. There is also a delicious motet by the almost forgotten Annibale Stabile, perhaps a student of Palestrina. But the choice of repertoire is the best reason of all. The pastoral Christmas flavor is no less defined in music of the Renaissance than it is in the Baroque: these pieces are consistently marked by an emphasis on melody, by major-sounding modes, and by a...
Read Less
