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Reviewer: Edward Breen Founded just a year ago, Utopia are among the proliferating number of young ensembles to combine a softer continental sound with steely accuracy in one-per-part Renaissance polyphony. The result, according to their tag-line, is ‘Belgian handmade polyphony’. The singers have between them a respectable heritage including the Collegium Vocale Gent, Netherlands Bach Society and Huelgas Ensemble, to name but a few, and in terms of sound they are similar to the ensemble Beauty Farm, with whom they share two singers. This debut disc, launched via a crowdfunding campaign, presents Cristóbal de Morales’s complete Seven Lamentations. Described by the Spanish theorist Juan Bermudo in 1555 as ‘the light of Spain in music’, Morales was the first Spanish composer to enjoy a true international reputation, being compared favourably to the Flemish composers Adrian Willaert and Nicolas Gombert. Stylistically Morales retains a Spanish flavour to the fulness of his polyphony, especially in sonorous homophonic passages, but blends this with the contrapuntal weaving of Low Countries composers and shades of Palestrina. His Lamentations are less immediately yearning than are, say, Lobo’s later settings yet they are peppered with ravishing passages to which the singers respond eagerly. Listen for Nun. Vigilavit iugum iniquitatum mearum to hear voices and composer run an impressive gamut of expression while maintaining delicate intimacy. A
relatively recent recording of three sections of these Lamentations by The
Brabant Ensemble (Hyperion, 11/08) calls for a comparison. As Fabrice Fitch
observed, The Brabant Ensemble have a high ‘centre of acoustic gravity’ in
Renaissance polyphony (Jacquet of Mantua review, 6/15) which I feel lends sheen
to their sound. Utopia, conversely, have a much lower centre of gravity yet
maintain similar clarity while simultaneously warming the texture with soft
Flemish-tinged vowel sounds. The results are beautiful, intimate and thoroughly
engaging. |
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