Composer: Richard Rodney Bennett, William Byrd, Gabriel Jackson, John Plummer, Andrew Smith, Thomas Tallis
Performer: New York Polyphony
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: BIS
Catalogue: BIS2037
Release: 2013
Size: 360 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Byrd: Mass for four voices
01. I. Kyrie eleison
02. II. Gloria
03. III. Credo in unum Deum
04. IV. Sanctus – Benedictus
05. V. Agnus Dei
06. Bennett: A Collloquy with God
Plummer: Missa Sine nomine
07. I. Kyrie omnipotens Pater
08. II. Gloria in excelsis Deo
09. III. Credo in unum Deum
10. IV. Sanctus – Benedictus
11. V. Agnus Dei
Smith: Kyrie IV
12. Cunctipotens genitor Deus
Tallis: Mass for four voices
13. I. Gloria in excelsis Deo
14. II. Credo in unum Deum
15. III. Sanctus – Benedictus
16. V. Agnus Dei
17. Jackson: Ite miss est
Taking its title from a poem by the sixteenth-century Jesuit martyr Robert Southwell, Times go by Turns comprises three masses composed during a period when the conditions for English Catholics – and Catholic composers – underwent radical change. Active at a time – the 15th century – when the Catholic Church flourished in England, John Plummer’s death roughly coincided with the ascension of the Tudors, a dynasty that would irreversibly alter religious traditions. As a consequence, the bulk of Plummer’s music was destroyed during the Reformation, the remainder surviving almost exclusively in sources from the continent. Born a century later than Plummer, Tallis witnessed the separation of England from the Catholic Church and his Mass for Four Voices displays a simple lyricism and economic use of polyphony which may well have been driven by liturgical necessity. Such constraints had grown even stronger by the end of the century, when his student and colleague William Byrd composed his own four-part Mass, intended for clandestine worship at a time when dissidents were dealt with by cruel means.
The vocal quartet New York Polyphony released endBeginning (BIS-1949) in 2012, a disc which focused on Franco-Flemish polyphony. Meeting with international acclaim, the ensemble’s first collaboration with BIS received top marks on website ClassicsToday.com and in the French magazine Diapason, as well as being included on the Best-of-2012 lists in The New Yorker and Time Out New York. While dedicated to the works of the great age of polyphony, New York Polyphony is also noted for its performances of contemporary music. For this disc the ensemble has commissioned two modern works, with Andrew Smith contributing a Kyrie – the movement which Tallis’ mass leaves out – and Gabriel Jackson providing the closing Ite missa est (‘The mass is ended’). The programme also includes one of the last compositions by Richard Rodney Bennett (1936–2012). A Colloquy with God, the setting of a poem by Sir Thomas Browne for four male voices, was dedicated to New York Polyphony.
The title of this release by the male quartet New York Polyphony refers to a poem by the martyred Catholic poet Robert Southwell, reproduced in the CD packaging. The idea of performing these works with a vocal quartet, which is certainly not how they were originally performed, appears to be that the pieces involved have an inward, secret quality resulting from the persecution of Catholics in England. Reactions to the album as a whole will likely to depend on how listeners feel about hearing Renaissance choral works sung by a quartet, and in parts of the album the medium undoubtedly contributes to the message. There’s a lot to be said for hearing Byrd’s Mass for four voices performed this way, for the way Byrd uses polyphony to sculpt out the words of the Catholic mass comes through with unusual clarity here. The same is true to a lesser extent of Thomas Tallis’ Mass for four voices. From there the logic of the program breaks down; the Missa sine nomine of the little known early Renaissance composer John Plummer shares the gently lyrical but still essentially impersonal language of John Dunstable, and the three contemporary pieces are of a different emotional flavor. Of the sheer sensuous beauty of New York Polyphony’s singing there can be little question, and the group is given a luxuriant environment in which to flourish by the BIS engineering team, working in Sweden’s small, stark Länna church from the Gothic era. The question is whether the sound matches the music. Sample a bit: the music may grab you instantly, or you may find it strangely mannered.