CD-Charts Position 1
Average Rating:

Cambridge Singers - A Cappella (Collegium)

from: Collegium

Release Date September 13, 1993
John Rutter has long been established as a fine choral conductor as well as an intelligent programmer and this CD further substantiates his preeminent position. For this album Rutter has selected a wide ranging repertoire of songs written for unaccompanied chorus, a tradition that dates back to the plainsongs of the old churches.

Opening with Benjamin Britten's completely enchanting setting of WH Auden's long poem 'Hymn to St. Cecilia' is marked by fluid rhythmic changes, perfect enunciation, and glorious choral singing. This is followed by a set of Brahms songs for female voices alone, Schumann's four songs for full chorus, a lovely performance of 'Lay a garland' by the little known RL Pearsall (1795 - 1856), and the Delius 'The ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 2
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Antoine Busnois: Missa O Crux lignum; Motets; Chansons

by: Antoine Busnois, Orlando Consort

Release Date January 11, 2005
A friend brought this disc to my attention and I am very glad that he did. Despite less name recognition than his contemporary Dufay, this disc presents Busnois as a master poyphonist with a crucial role in the development of the genre that founds it zenith in Bach and Beethoven (Op. 133).

The raison d'etre of this disc is the Mass. While it has a significant length of half an hour it is a work of a concentration that reminded me of Anton Webern at his best. While the "chaste tonality" clearly limited many of Busnois' contemporaries, he appears a master of making less of more and in exploring it to the max. As a result, this mass shines in its combination of Escherian construction and pastel tonal colors.

The Orlando consort performs ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 3
Average Rating:

Handel: Esther

from: Somm Recordings

Release Date May 06, 2008
A friend brought this disc to my attention and I am very glad that he did. Despite less name recognition than his contemporary Dufay, this disc presents Busnois as a master poyphonist with a crucial role in the development of the genre that founds it zenith in Bach and Beethoven (Op. 133).

The raison d'etre of this disc is the Mass. While it has a significant length of half an hour it is a work of a concentration that reminded me of Anton Webern at his best. While the "chaste tonality" clearly limited many of Busnois' contemporaries, he appears a master of making less of more and in exploring it to the max. As a result, this mass shines in its combination of Escherian construction and pastel tonal colors.

The Orlando consort performs ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 4
Average Rating:

Favourite Hymns from Oxford

from: Griffin

Release Date January 01, 2004
A friend brought this disc to my attention and I am very glad that he did. Despite less name recognition than his contemporary Dufay, this disc presents Busnois as a master poyphonist with a crucial role in the development of the genre that founds it zenith in Bach and Beethoven (Op. 133).

The raison d'etre of this disc is the Mass. While it has a significant length of half an hour it is a work of a concentration that reminded me of Anton Webern at his best. While the "chaste tonality" clearly limited many of Busnois' contemporaries, he appears a master of making less of more and in exploring it to the max. As a result, this mass shines in its combination of Escherian construction and pastel tonal colors.

The Orlando consort performs ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 5
Average Rating:

Palestrina 400 Collection

by: Palestrina, Phillips, Tallis Scholars

Release Date November 30, 1993
A friend brought this disc to my attention and I am very glad that he did. Despite less name recognition than his contemporary Dufay, this disc presents Busnois as a master poyphonist with a crucial role in the development of the genre that founds it zenith in Bach and Beethoven (Op. 133).

The raison d'etre of this disc is the Mass. While it has a significant length of half an hour it is a work of a concentration that reminded me of Anton Webern at his best. While the "chaste tonality" clearly limited many of Busnois' contemporaries, he appears a master of making less of more and in exploring it to the max. As a result, this mass shines in its combination of Escherian construction and pastel tonal colors.

The Orlando consort performs ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 6
Average Rating:

Schütz: Christmas Vespers / McCreesh, Gabrieli Consort and Players

by: Gregorian Chant, Heinrich Schutz, Gabrieli Consort and Players, Paul McCreesh, Charles Daniels, Neal Davies, Andrew Carwood, Susan Hemington Jones, Charles Pott, Simon Grant, Robert Horn, James Johnstone, Kristian Olesen, Choir of Roskilde Cathedral

Release Date October 19, 1999
First of all, I was enthralled by the singing and the organ sound: very rich and musical in every way. The congregational singing, specifically, is superb, and the CD is worth buying for everything that comes before and after the Christmas Historia.

The historia, though, is an edition that is disconcerting to me. Perhaps I have heard versions that are less "authentic" than this one, but there are enough differences between the McCreesh and other versions I have heard that I must assume others will be affected the same way.

CD-Charts Position 7
Average Rating:

Medieval Christmas

from: Harmonia Mundi Fr.

Release Date January 01, 2006
First of all, I was enthralled by the singing and the organ sound: very rich and musical in every way. The congregational singing, specifically, is superb, and the CD is worth buying for everything that comes before and after the Christmas Historia.

The historia, though, is an edition that is disconcerting to me. Perhaps I have heard versions that are less "authentic" than this one, but there are enough differences between the McCreesh and other versions I have heard that I must assume others will be affected the same way.

CD-Charts Position 8
Average Rating:

Venetian Vespers (Monteverdi * Rigatti * Grandi * Cavalli) /Gabrieli Consort & Players * McCreesh

by: Research Composer, Giovanni Antonio Rigatti, Alessandro Grandi, Claudio Monteverdi, Adriano Banchieri, Giacomo Finetti, Pietro Francesco Cavalli, Anonymous, Gregorian Chant, Biagio Marini, Gabrieli Consort, Charles Daniels, Paul McCreesh, Alison Wray, Jonathan Best, Tessa Bonner, Angus Smith, Peter Harvey, Robert Horn, Paula Chateauneuf, Timothy Roberts, Susan Hemington Jones, Fred Jacobs, Celia Harper, Charles Pott, Florian Deuter, Gabrieli Players

Release Date May 11, 1993
This really a fine recording. I bought my copy one sunny Saturday morning in Melbourne in around 1993. I saw it on the shelf and I got my wallet out. I was completely blown away by the music on this disc. Rigatti was a real discovery for me.

The use of high falsettists in the chorus and solos is particularly effective and gives us a real insight into the sounds of music in Venice in the early 17th century.

I cannot recommend this marvellous recording too highly, it is clearly one of the best made by the Gabrieli Consort, Choir & Players.

Great playing from the strings, cornetti and tromboni.

CD-Charts Position 9
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De Vitry & Ars Nova: 14th Cent Motets

by: Orlando Consort, Charles Daniels, Angus Smith, Donald Grieg

Release Date March 06, 1995
De Vitry is best known (and only to musicologists) as the mastermind of the new musical notation which made ars nova polyphony possible, and which led to the development of modern notation. The evidence of his role is provisional, and the attribution of the motets on this CD to him is quite speculative, but if it's correct, then he was one of the greatest musical innovators of all time. Now the virtuosity of the Orlando Consort has brought this crucial repertory to life in a performance of such beauty and subtlety that the listener can forget about scholarship and just bask in sound. The art of this music is chiefly in the complex polyrhythmic development of relatively transparent harmonic progressions. As usual, the Orlando's control of phrasing and tuning is phenomenal. I have ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 10
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The Saracen and the Dove: Music from the Courts of Padua and Pavia

from: Polygram Records

Release Date July 20, 1999
Briefly, this is the best recording of Ars Subtilior music ever made--the finest control of tuning and rhythmic complexities, the most insightful interpretation, the most lucid program notes, and the clearest audio. Don't hesitate! Buy it!