BaL 31.03.18 - Tallis: Lamentations of Jeremiah

[jean]

Thanks, I'd just realised that!

[jean]

She doesn't mention which of the recordings attempt contemporary English pronunciation of the text. The Hilliards give an exraordinary quality to the A of Aleph. Andrew Carwood has Jerusalem, I haven't heard any examples of ejus.

[ardcarp]

It was a good review, though Alexandra sometimes got a little carried away with her metaphors, I thought!

IMV there are three main things for a buyer of a CD to consider:

1. Which pitch is preferable (i.e. Sops on top or not)
2. Whether [putting it briefly] an expressive or bland performanve style is preferable
3. Whether consort, choir or OVPP is prefereable

If low pitch, expressive performance and OVPP ticks all your boxes, then her choice (Nigel Short/Tenebrae) was well considered.

In their own different ways, The Tallis Scholars and the Hilliards* gave us a 'cool' version...though if you want 'cool' plus absolute clarity then the old Kings Singers is hard to beat...though it is as if they're in your own sitting room (with a bit of added reverb.) Great for studying the score though.

Tallis's compositional technique, though loosely polyphonic, does result in quite a lot of block chords changing in a note-per-note fashion (not a very informed description I'm afraid). So, especially in Lamentations II, there are quite lengthy passages where it can become foursquare if the horizontal lines are forgotten. It is for that reason that I think both Carwood and New College Oxford come up very well.

As with most things, it's horses for courses......

*PS I thought her description of The Hilliards as 'the bleached bones of a skeleton' was a bit unkind!

[jean]

*PS I thought her description of The Hilliards as 'the bleached bones of a skeleton' was a bit unkind!

Given the nature of the work, it was the highest of compliments I thought!

[teamsaint]

I really wish reviewers would avoid potentially offensive metaphors.
Hand grenades, ( from another reviewer) flesh being flayed etc. Unnecessary, and uninformative.

This was ok, but i found it a little jumbled.
And I REALLY wish that if reviewers are illustrating what they think is good phrasing ( and other elements, but phrasing in particular) they would play a comparison extract , otherwise the point can be lost.

[DracoM]

Given the nature of the work, it was the highest of compliments I thought!

[ardcarp]

This was ok, but i found it a little jumbled.
And I REALLY wish that if reviewers are illustrating what they think is good phrasing ( and other elements, but phrasing in particular) they would play a comparison extract , otherwise the point can be lost.

Trying to put myself in the place of the reviewer, I would have loved an extra 15 - 20 minutes in order to do as you so aptly suggest. Given how quickly, as a listener, time seems to pass during BALs of any sort, maybe the Power-That-Be might consider allotting a longer slot for this ever-popular feature of Record Review?

[BBMmk2]

I don't remember The Sixteen being mentioned? I rather like their style and I presume Stile Antico's recording was too late for a review?

[ardcarp]

The 16 were mentioned, though along with other 'higher pitch' versions, they were given short shrift.

[BBMmk2]

The 16 were mentioned, though along with other 'higher pitch' versions, they were given short shrift.

Being PC a bit, was she, imo, then?

[ardcarp]

Sorry BBM. I'm probably being thick, but I don't quite get the drift.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Tallis's compositional technique, though loosely polyphonic, does result in quite a lot of block chords changing in a note-per-note fashion (not a very informed description I'm afraid). So, especially in Lamentations II, there are quite lengthy passages where it can become foursquare if the horizontal lines are forgotten.

But as it's essentially canonic writing, I can't imagine how those horizontal lines could possibly be forgotten? The gorgeous "false relations" chords (with major and minor third sounded simultaneously) don't make much harmonic sense if conceived as "block chords" - only when the simultaneous individual lines coincide on these particular notes.

Leastways, that's what most struck me later this morning when I played again the sublime Pro Cantione Antiqua recording, and followed with my copy of the score. And the reviewer was wrong in one respect at least - there are none of the intonation issues that she suggested in this performance.


Wha'evva - this is incredibly beautiful Music.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I really wish reviewers would avoid potentially offensive metaphors.
Hand grenades, ( from another reviewer) flesh being flayed etc. Unnecessary, and uninformative.

And even the "unoffensive" similes could be unhelpful - the image of the opening (a rising fourth followed by descending scales) "like tears flowing down the face". Does that mean that the opening of Part Two (rising scales followed by a falling fifth) is like tears flowing up the face and back into the eyes?

[DracoM]

[BBMmk2]

Sorry BBM. I'm probably being thick, but I don't quite get the drift.

I was meaning with the pitch that various recordings were using.