COMPOSERS: Cornysh/Turges/Prentes
LABELS: ASV Gaudeamus
WORKS: Salve regina; Magnificat; Magnificat; Magnificat
PERFORMER: The Cardinall’s Musick/Andrew Carwood
CATALOGUE NO: CD GAU 164
The exultant Magnificat text provides the focal point for this latest release from Andrew Carwood and The Cardinall’s Musick. Moreover, the three different Magnificats offered here (by Cornysh, Turges and Prentes) make a rewarding supplement to their survey of the Caius Choirbook repertoire.
In all three versions, vigorous singing from the full choir gives way to sections of gently pulsating plainsong and beautifully shaped counterpoint for various smaller groupings, giving potently vivid portrayals of the Marian text. However, I found the greatest satisfaction in Prentes’s brilliant setting – sadly his only surviving work.
Among three motets by Cornysh also included in the programme, the impassioned pleas for salvation in the Salve regina eloquently illustrate this composer’s colourful word-painting. Nicholas Rast