John Sheppard: EMS 28 February

[Gabriel Jackson]

My link to the Nimbus CD was primarily to show that it was still available.

It's also very good!

[ardcarp]

Well, it's damn shame that the current series of EXCELLENT recordings etc by Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford under Stephen Darlington are NOT in the mix for this
Instead, we have the usual suspects - JEG, The Sixteen, the Tallis Scholars. Who plans these things? Do they know the recorded literature in the field?

We did hear Westminster Abbey choir singing Sheppard's English-text Magnificat.

I was sorry not to have had an extract from Sheppard's Western Wynde Mass. That popular tune was used by several of his contemporaries (and in Sheppard's Mass it is ever present in the treble part) so to hear it would have been historically informative. BTW, English Mass settings of that time seldom had a Kyrie, so it is necessary to supply a plainsong one. (The Leroy Kyrie is useful.)

[DracoM]

Yup. Agreed, but my point about 'the usual suspects' still stands, I'm afraid.

[Miles Coverdale]

Well, it's damn shame that the current series of EXCELLENT recordings etc by Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford under Stephen Darlington are NOT in the mix for this programme.

I am given to understand that volume 4 of this series is in the pipeline.

[Barbirollians]

If the Tallis Scholars and the usual suspects I am more than glad to hear them in John Sheppard's works .

I wore out a cassette of their Sheppard recording in the early 1990s .

[DracoM]

I am given to understand that volume 4 of this series is in the pipeline.

Indeed. My info as well.

[Old Grumpy]

A very good edition of EMS in my view, who ever was singing - all excellent I thought (as an amateur).

More like this please, Lucie!



OG

[DracoM]

With Andrew Carwood as one of the cantors:

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/Nimbus/NI5480

My copy is part of an 8-CD Nimbus Christ Church set titled English Choral Music 1514--1682.

Indeed - I have it too, very fine. My own view is that the CCCO way with Late 15th / early 16th century has matured and settled, and they sing as idiomatically as many.

However, we then get into the tricky age-old minefield of pitch. I loved the stratospheric Clerkes - thrilled me when young, gripped me to listen in a whole new way to Tudor music and earlier, but I have come to love the more rounded sound of the CCCO.

[Richard Tarleton]

Yup. Agreed, but my point about 'the usual suspects' still stands, I'm afraid.

As does mine Draco - we could hardly have had Sally D, as both scholar and practitioner, and not had a programme pitched towards the groups she's been associated with, surely? Especially since she was talking about it from both perspectives. It was the premise of the programme, non?

[DracoM]

Oui. You invite Sally D and that's job done - choose the composer and the music selection is all about groups what I have sung with. i.e. yet another 'celeb' led slot. Luckily, she DID talk a lot about the music too.

BBC modelling R3 on R1? - pick the jock, get the stars...'music? whaddya mean, it's all about slebs, music just fills in the silences.'

Better than today's EssClass with Gyles Brandreth instead of the Mozart Requiem in full.

[Miles Coverdale]

Oui. You invite Sally D and that's job done - choose the composer and the music selection is all about groups what I have sung with. i.e. yet another 'celeb' led slot. Luckily, she DID talk a lot about the music too.

BBC modelling R3 on R1? - pick the jock, get the stars...'music? whaddya mean, it's all about slebs, music just fills in the silences.'

I can't help thinking you're looking to find fault here. The programme did end with the whole of Media vita, all 20-odd minutes of it. You can't claim that the music was just there to fill in the silences.

[jean]

Luckily, she DID talk a lot about the music too.

No luck involved - you know very well that if you invite her, that's what you'll get.

And I'm sure she won't mind me saying that she's hardly a 'celeb' - any more than (rather leess than, actually) the musicians whose talking about their practice on Choirworks in the Good Old Days is so highly praised on another thread.

[french frank]

No luck involved - you know very well that if you invite her, that's what you'll get.

And I'm sure she won't mind me saying that she's hardly a 'celeb'

Yes - there is a distinction between TEMS and the Early Music Late slot - which is a concert format. Much like the difference between World Routes and World on 3 (and given the fate of World Routes, value what you get!).

[DracoM]

No luck involved - you know very well that if you invite her, that's what you'll get.

And I'm sure she won't mind me saying that she's hardly a 'celeb' - any more than (rather leess than, actually) the musicians whose talking about their practice on Choirworks in the Good Old Days is so highly praised on another thread.

In the Earlyish Music scene, Sally Dunkley IS a celeb. Justifiably so.

[french frank]

In the Earlyish Music scene, Sally Dunkley IS a celeb.

She is also an expert, talking about what she knows. Isn't that the distinction? They had David Wulstan on once - talking to CB.