BaL 3.01.15 - Palestrina: Missa Papae Marcelli

[HighlandDougie]

I've come rather late to the party, having only just caught up on this BAL. I have to say, rather against the flow, I couldn't quite get Ms Gill's drift. What was she after? The two versions she favoured (Oxford Camerata and close second Tallis Scholars) are both excellent, of course, but Oh So English! Only one continental group (I think) was played...and probably rightly dismissed.....but surely there's some other, different, and equally valid Palestrina sounds out there in the wider world?

Some years ago (for reasons I can't fully recall...probably financial) I sang tenor in a French choir doing Palestrina amongst other things. It was to start with utterly alien, literally in one sense because they have their own idiosyncratic pronunciation of Latin. [Who's to say ours isn't?] But there were also great swellings up and dyings away, not to mention pulling the tempo around all the time. But after a while I thought to myself that their tradition of singing Italianate music liturgically has probably rolled continuously through the centuries, uninterrupted by minor inconveniences such as The Reformation, so who am I to presume to know how it should be done?

Are there any continental performances on CD which anyone knows and can recommend?

Great post - I certainly can't recommend any non-English performances but I kept thinking on Saturday morning that there must be other approaches, much as I like Peter Phillips et al.

[teamsaint]

it wouldn't be too hard to pick holes in this programme. EG Do the acoustics matter or not, she couldn't seem to make up her mind... and there were other inconsistencies.
However, my main problem with it was that it didn't seem to know if it was a lecture, or a record review. FWIW, I think that, for us to learn more about the music, and importantly different styles of performance, ( those of us who might need to), a much more forensic approach is needed at times...identical short sections played, and even repeated, for example, to emphasise the presence or absence of very fast crescendos and diminuendos, (something that she mentioned,for example, )or individual pieces of phrase shaping. I find too many reviewers "guilty" of just applauding the shaping of phrasing, without using the very appropriate means that radio offers to demonstrate it.

All that said, I'm sure that the reviewer has selected well,and with good judgement, and perhaps it is the format , and its demand for a mixed approach including various disciplines, that is the problem.

Anyway, can't wait for my copy of the OC disc to arrive, so, in one sense, job done.

[Nick Armstrong]

a much more forensic approach is needed at times...identical short sections played, and even repeated, for example, to emphasise the presence or absence of very fast crescendos and diminuendos, (something that she mentioned,for example, )or individual pieces of phrase shaping. I find too many reviewers "guilty" of just applauding the shaping of phrasing, without using the very appropriate means that radio offers to demonstrate it.

I agree with this

[ardcarp]

a much more forensic approach is needed at times...identical short sections played, and even repeated, for example, to emphasise the presence or absence of very fast crescendos and diminuendos, (something that she mentioned,for example, )or individual pieces of phrase shaping. I find too many reviewers "guilty" of just applauding the shaping of phrasing, without using the very appropriate means that radio offers to demonstrate it.

You've hit the nail on the head,Calibs. However,

perhaps it is the format

is a phrase that might be pounced on by the management as a cue to make 'dialogue with Andrew' the norm. Many solo reviewers...indeed most....do the job according to your excellent prescription. Jeremy Summerly for instance. Sadly though, he was one of the protagonists and so out of the running.

[Roehre]

I agree with this

thirded

[Nick Armstrong]

You've hit the nail on the head, Calibs.

That was the teamster!

[BBMmk2]

That was the teamster!

He certainly hit the nail on! Good post there TS! thanks! :)! :)