The 450th anniversary of the birth of William Byrd was bound to produce a spate of commemorative recordings, not least of those three much-loved works which reveal most deeply the composer's own personal involvement, namely, his three Masses for three, four and five voices respectively. First in the field, Naxos is offering an absolute bargain: a new recording of the four- and five-part Masses by the Oxford Camerata, together with a setting of Savonarola's penitential text Infelix ego. This is an amazingly low-priced CD. The singers are a young group with boundless energy—indeed so much so that they need curbing in the louder passages, where their tone roughens unduly. They are best in their calmer moments, as in the Agnus Dei of the five-part Mass. I would, however, warmly recommend this disc to anyone wishing for a first tasting of this music. For anyone willing to invest a slightly larger sum, there is the two-disc commemorative album—lavishly annotated by our own JM—produced by The Tallis Scholars, who have reissued two of their earlier recordings, one of Byrd's Anglican music, representing the best in official post-Reformation worship, culminating in the splendid Magnificat of The Great Service; and the other of Catholic music, with the three Masses and a couple of motets, including Infelix ego. Their performance is clean and lively, with a clearer perspective and rather more sensitive phrasing than the Oxford Camerata.
Other performances include those of the Choir of King's College under Sir David Willcocks on Decca. These are remastered analogue recordings dating back to 1959 and 1963. The pace is slower, the vowels darker, the rhythms well-defined—I am thinking in particular of the little rising figure in the Benedictus of the four-part Mass. The slower tempo helps to bring out the beauty of the suspensions in the Agnus Dei, sung with care and sensitivity. I noted, too, the exceptionally fine vocal quality of the choristers and their excellent balance, holding their own among the more mature and vibrant voices of the men. By contrast, the performance by the Hilliard Ensemble on EMI, in a recording dating back ten years, is somewhat marred by the lack of balance. Singing, as might well have been the case, with a single voice to a part, the countertenor was too prominent, at times practically eclipsing the soprano.
There is one more recording of these three Masses that I would like to recommend very highly: that of the Choir of Winchester Cathedral under David Hill on Argo. This is a lively performance, with great subtlety of phrasing, and with lighter and more open vowels than King's; but above all, with a deeper penetration of the sense of this incomparable music. Of all the performances, this is the one I would wish to hear again and again, chiefly because of that indefinable quality of understanding.'