TALLIS Spem in alium
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Thomas Tallis
Genre:
Vocal
Label: Hyperion
Magazine Review Date: 11/2016
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 76
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: CDA68156
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
In jejunio et fletu |
Thomas Tallis, Composer
(The) Cardinall's Musick Andrew Carwood, Director Thomas Tallis, Composer |
Blessed are those that be undefiled |
Thomas Tallis, Composer
(The) Cardinall's Musick Andrew Carwood, Director Thomas Tallis, Composer |
Purge me, O Lord |
Thomas Tallis, Composer
(The) Cardinall's Musick Andrew Carwood, Director Thomas Tallis, Composer |
Spem in alium |
Thomas Tallis, Composer
(The) Cardinall's Musick Andrew Carwood, Director Thomas Tallis, Composer |
God grant we grace |
Thomas Tallis, Composer
(The) Cardinall's Musick Andrew Carwood, Director Thomas Tallis, Composer |
O Lord, open thou our lips |
Thomas Tallis, Composer
(The) Cardinall's Musick Andrew Carwood, Director Thomas Tallis, Composer |
Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? |
Thomas Tallis, Composer
(The) Cardinall's Musick Andrew Carwood, Director Thomas Tallis, Composer |
O do well unto thy servant |
Thomas Tallis, Composer
(The) Cardinall's Musick Andrew Carwood, Director Thomas Tallis, Composer |
My soul cleaveth to the dust |
Thomas Tallis, Composer
(The) Cardinall's Musick Andrew Carwood, Director Thomas Tallis, Composer |
Short Service 'Dorian Service' |
Thomas Tallis, Composer
(The) Cardinall's Musick Andrew Carwood, Director Thomas Tallis, Composer |
The Lord be with you |
Thomas Tallis, Composer
(The) Cardinall's Musick Andrew Carwood, Director Thomas Tallis, Composer |
O sacrum convivium |
Thomas Tallis, Composer
(The) Cardinall's Musick Andrew Carwood, Director Thomas Tallis, Composer |
Remember not, O Lord God |
Thomas Tallis, Composer
(The) Cardinall's Musick Andrew Carwood, Director Thomas Tallis, Composer |
Hear the voice and prayer |
Thomas Tallis, Composer
(The) Cardinall's Musick Andrew Carwood, Director Thomas Tallis, Composer |
Verily, verily say I unto you |
Thomas Tallis, Composer
(The) Cardinall's Musick Andrew Carwood, Director Thomas Tallis, Composer |
O Lord, in thee is all my trust |
Thomas Tallis, Composer
(The) Cardinall's Musick Andrew Carwood, Director Thomas Tallis, Composer |
Hodie nobis caelorum Rex |
Thomas Tallis, Composer
(The) Cardinall's Musick Andrew Carwood, Director Thomas Tallis, Composer |
Sing and glorify heaven's high majesty |
Thomas Tallis, Composer
(The) Cardinall's Musick Andrew Carwood, Director Thomas Tallis, Composer |
Author: Fabrice Fitch
The rest of the recital alternates rarely heard selections (though I can do without the sets of Preces and Responses) and more familiar selections (O sacrum convivum, for instance), but naturally one’s interest gravitates toward Spem. As far as I’m aware, only one other recording (by I Fagiolini) has appeared since I surveyed its discography in the round in 2010, and this one also adds a new twist: the well-known contemporary report of its first performance, which suggests that it took place in a large hall rather than a church, sanctions the comparatively dry acoustic heard here. (If memory serves, the only other acoustic as dry as this is Michael Tippett’s with the Morley College Choir from 1948). Without the sonic ‘glue’ afforded them by lengthy reverberation, Carwood’s ensemble give the sense of an unfolding tapestry, and the sound recording holds detail and monumentality in fine balance (barring some strange ringing overtones at 2'32"). Some impetus is lost in the opening ‘Mexican wave’, but the first tutti grows organically out of what preceded, and the build-up preceding the pause at ‘in tribulatione’ is very nicely managed. But, apart from the awesome initial arrival on ‘Respice’, it’s a seamless rather than a dramatic view of Spem.
The only disappointment is that the English version, which concludes the disc, is not more contrasted in approach. Spem was revived for the inaugurations as Princes of Wales of both of James I’s sons early in the following century, but despite a slightly faster tempo, the celebratory overtones are not captured as thrillingly as on The Sixteen’s most recent account for Coro, which also gives both versions alongside each other.
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