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Reviewer: Edward Breen The London Oratory Schola Cantorum Boys Choir sing weekly in the generous acoustic of the Brompton Oratory and the music on this disc reflects their dedication to Tudor repertoire. The top line largely dictates their overall sound and in Tye’s Missa Euge bone the trebles exhibit a bright, joyful grain with a slight tendency to sharpness that portrays lofty phrases as immediate and readily communicative. Coupled with the men’s rich voices, they find great interest in the alternating upper- and lower-voiced textures that this Mass favours. In the Gloria there is a fabulous transition from calm, homophonic texture in ‘Jesu Christe’ to effusive, puppyish joy in ‘Cum Sancto Spiritu…Amen’. The disarming freshness of this performance is marred only by occasional mannered pronunciation: ‘Sanctus’ rhymes with ‘horse’. In Byrd’s Civitas sancti tui the strident trebles recall the choir of New College, Oxford, directed by Edward Higginbottom in 1983 (CRD, 4/84, 12/91). Indeed, the Oratory Schola show similar understanding of the throbbing ache that Byrd writes into his arch-shaped phrases for ‘Jerusalem’ and trebles lean deeply into ‘desolata est’ as they are emotionally anchored by the solidity of the men’s voices. Although beautifully recorded in All Hallows, Gospel Oak, it is a pity not to hear the choir in their usual, larger acoustic space of the Brompton Oratory, which smooths and calms their wilder moments. A significant part of this disc’s charm, however, stems from moment-to-moment imperfections, which, far from distracting the listener, impart tenderness and a genuine communication often lost in heavily edited recordings. These qualities come from a choir that sings Tudor music as part of a regular liturgical offering and as such it captures much of what is so special about English choral foundations. |
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