Track Listing

1. Taedet animam meam, responsory for 6 voices (Missa Pro defunctis II)
2. Introitus
3. Kyrie
4. Domine quando veneris, motet for 4 voices (from Motets Book II for 4 voices)
5. Graduale
6. Libera me, responsory for 4 voices (Missa pro defunctus I)
7. Tractus
8. Ad Dominum cum tribularer, motet for 4 voices (from Motets Book II for 4 voices)
9. Sequentia
10. Offertorium
11. Peccantem me quotidie, responsory for 4 voices (Missa Pro defunctis I)
12. Sanctus - Benedictus
13. Heu mihi Domine, motet for 4 voices (from Motets Book II for 4 voices)
14. Agnus Dei
15. Communio
16. Libera me, motet for 3 voices (doubtful)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #217999 in Music
• Released on: 2000-04-25
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording reissued

Amazon.com
Assuming his patronage has not yet been assigned, St. Gerold should be considered the patron saint of echo. The Monastery of St. Gerold, in which this collection was recorded, adds a solid second of sonic life--and, as a result, extended reflection--to everything sung by the members of the esteemed Hilliard Ensemble. When the quartet of male vocalists join in unison on a brief "Kyrie," the sanctum's heavenly reverberation mirrors their vocal line like a geometrically precise hall of mirrors. And when the group's members (countertenor, two tenors, and baritone) move into the tentative intricacies of early polyphonic composition, light is shed on the venture's complexity. Not only must the singers balance each other's tone and timing, they must take into consideration the amplification and delay of the music's traditional performance space. The Hilliards have recorded several discs of Palestrina and music of this period (early 16th century). This one has in its favor the presence of settings of related texts by another composer, Tomás Luis de Victoria (two decades Palestrina's junior). Comparing the two helps in the familiarization of music the quiet beauty of which can be mistaken for homogeneity only by a casual listener. The selections--drawn from each composer's respective settings of the Requiem or parts of the Office for the Dead--are interspersed with plainsong chants from the Graduale Romanum, through which the disc attempts to reconstruct the original context in which these pieces by Palestrina and Victoria would have been heard. --Marc Weidenbaum

Customer Reviews

Vintage Hilliard Ensemble
This is a very special recording. I have a large collection of recordings of Renaissance music, but few are as breathtaking and touching as this one. Even by the exalted standards of this great vocal quartet, it must be counted a triumph.

One often hears the music of Palestrina and Victoria referred to as the "grand style" of Renaissance music: measured, big, and slightly impersonal. Not here. Here it is intimate, immensely moving, and seems to be a living thing. The ensemble singing is so perfect you can almost hear the singers listening to one another, as one voice after another ventures out into the darkness, only to be met by another. And rather than marching on to their preordained destinations, they seem to feel one another's presence. The attention and responsiveness of the singers is dazzling.

There is, in fact, an element of tentativeness in these interpretations, as though the music is being improvised and negotiated on the spot. I hear, above all, a sense of discovery: discovery of the simple beauty of voices sounding together in harmony.

The austere, intimate beauty of the polyphonic pieces is only enhanced by having them interpolate between sections of Gregorian chant. And, let it be said, even the chant sections are rendered with great care and feeling.

Though I think this one of the greatest recordings of the past decade, it seems to have passed quietly below the radar screen of award competitions. Perhaps it is just as well; this music will find its listeners. The Penguin Guide complains about the atmosphere of "doom and gloom", which is an embarrassing misapprehension on their part. The voices emerge from the darkness, true enough, and that impression is uncannily portrayed. They are singing a funeral rite, true enough, and they would be remiss if they did not bring to the music an element of sadness. But the result is poignant and luminous. This recording is one of the great glories of recorded sound.

Mystery and Detachment
Here we have unadorned beauty shorn of self-conscious and extrovert notions of performance and virtuosity. The result is music imbued with a sense of mystery and detachment from the world. The Hilliard Ensemble provides an exquisite reading of the plainsong melodies of the Requiem. They alternate these with simple imitative polyphonic settings of responsory texts from the Office of the Dead or the Burial Service. The acoustics of the monastery of St Gerold provide a wondrous balance of focussed sound and upholstered tone, along with a lingering echo. One cannot help but to fall in love with such high loveliness. The recording opens with a haunting rendition of Victoria's 4-part "Taedet animam meam". For these few minutes alone, it is worth owning the CD. Few recordings manage to convey the quiet beauty and power of a large section of Renaissance music which may, at first sight, not seem to be much on paper. This recording equals, and in some instances surpasses, the ethereal sound of the 1987 Tallis Scholars recording of Victoria's Requiem. I have only one problem. The blurb by Ivan Moody requires a response: even Renaissance sacred music has beauty and value which demand an anthropocentric, "secular" appreciation. It is rather tedious to have experts with anachronistic liturgical axes to grind!

One of the finest of all recordings by the Hilliard Ensemble
Of the many recordings by the Hilliard Ensemble few that I recall have been as deeply memorable as this one. Usually I must confess to preferring other composers of the Renaissance but when Palestrina is played like he is here resistance becomes futile. Of course the Victoria sounds wonderful too but it is the Palestrina here that really got under my skin. In fact I can scarcely think of any recordings of music by Palestrina that I have found as deeply affecting and memorable as the motets recorded here. The whole recording is conceived as a liturgical reconstruction of an Office for the Dead with chant sections from the Graduale Romanum from Toul in France being used as an example of typical post-Council of Trent reforms.

The coverslip notes are also very good and thorough. The majority of it is written authoritatively in English although there is an untranslated section in German. The German notes by Uwe Schweikert, entitled 'Listen with the Ears of the Heart', is basically a history of the origins of the Requiem Mass from early Romanesque origins through Ockeghem and all the way onwards to Mozart and Verdi. I must say the description of the Latin Requiem as once having been a musical 'Gesamtkunstwerk' (sic) is a bit over-the-top! Schweikert concludes with a brief background to the musical careers of Palestrina and Victoria. The description of Palestrina is however particularly memorable: "The principle of this style is the minutely woven, extremely discreet compositional calculation on all levels of the musical structure." Victoria is characterised as a typical Spanish Counter-Reformation mystic. I like the point that in the post-Council of Trent period of reformation, both composers make full use of "expressive, highly melismatically formed Gregorian chant melodies" which "tie the score of Palestrina and Victoria together". So if you don't read German that's basically what the text says - thank goodness the English and German notes don't contradict each other. Don't laugh - this is exactly what happens on a Deutsche Gramophon issue I own.

For some reason published reviews of this recording are scant and how it managed to slip through almost unnoticed without winning any deserved awards is beyond me but David Vernier somehow managed to get a copy for review on Classicstoday online. His conclusions were:

"The Hilliards once again have proven that as interpreters of early vocal music, they are uniquely qualified. This is communication on the highest level, both among the group members and with an ever appreciative and satisfied audience."

He gave it a 10/10 rating for performance/recording with the comment that "you will hear music and singing that's as close to the disc's title, In Paradisum, as you will get on earth".

The excellent recorded sound coupled with some of the finest Palestrina and Victoria I have ever heard combine for an unforgettable recording that every lover of Renaissance polyphony will want to hear.