This is really two quite separate discs. One has the 28 voices of the
Yale Schola Cantorum, performing unaccompanied in Christ Church, New
Haven, CT; and the other has the cornett and organ of Bruce Dickie and
Liuwe Tamminga in the Basilica of S Martino, Bologna. The insert
confusingly gives David Hill as director of both; and it gives no hint
that two of the pieces Bruce Dickie plays are literal renderings of
Giovanni Bassano’s published arrangements of Palestrina (though the
information is there in Noel O’Regan’s useful booklet note). Beyond
that, it lists the keyboard ricercars as only ‘attrib’, whereas they are
clearly ascribed in the source, merely doubted in some circles because
they were never printed and do not survive in Palestrina’s hand.
The eight-voice Mass is of the cori spezzati variety,
that is, with both choirs independently complete for singing well apart
from one another, though that couldn’t have happened in the Sistine
Chapel (which had only the one choir balcony); and the recording here
makes no attempt to separate the choirs, which is a slight pity. The
other pity is that they follow the annoying habit of singing
Palestrina’s first Agnus Dei twice rather than adding a first or second Agnus
in chant, which is presumably what Palestrina expected. But for the
rest David Hill produces a marvellous sound from his choir, beautifully
tuned, beautifully balanced and with many truly exciting moments.
Bruce Dickie is a totally authoritative player for the two Bassano
pieces and two further Palestrina pieces; and Liuwe Tamminga plays with
equal authority. These tracks are an unalloyed pleasure. (David Fallows / Gramophone)
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