Robert White is one of those hugely gifted composers whose posthumous reputation has suffered from the proximity of an even greater figure; yet his finest pieces may stand comparison with anything written in his lifetime, by Byrd or anyone else. Last year, a disc from The Tallis Scholars introduced his name to a wider audience (Gimell, 6/95); now, the Cambridge-based Henry’s Eight honour him with their recording debut. The shadow surrounding White is beginning to lift.
What strikes one at first hearing is the variety of techniques the composer employs. Most of the pieces heard here are psalm-motets, but White follows many different approaches (as detailed in the informative accompanying note by the producer, Alison Bullock) ranging from imitation of a quasi-continental strictness to a free alternation of homophonic and polyphonic textures in the Miserere (reminiscent, though perhaps in that respect only, of Tallis’s Lamentations). His melodic style is at times rather more florid than that of Tallis or Byrd, and one recalls the almost Eton-like prolixity of the Magnificat recorded by The Tallis Scholars. There is nothing so extreme here, but nevertheless, the range of White’s accomplishment is impressive.
Another immediate impression is that of the commitment of the singers to this undervalued figure. The all-male Henry’s Eight belong audibly to the Oxbridge tradition of choral scholars: that is to say that ensemble, intonation and textural clarity are pretty well faultless throughout. On the other hand, their capacity to shape individual pieces, to produce an incredibly vibrant and full sound when required (in short, to ‘let rip’), is not so often met with in that tradition. This allows them to make the most of the textural contrasts of the Miserere, for example; equally, the long paragraphs of through-composed imitation are carefully paced, sometimes starting quietly, then building up, subsiding and building up again (listen to the very first track, Domine, quis habitabit). Supported by a fine recording on their home turf, the chapel of Trinity College, Cambridge, they sound very impressive indeed. I await their future recordings with pleasure.'