Ceuleers, Comes, Josquindes Prez, Wylkynson, Striggio,Maessens, Rebelo, Gabrieli and Tallis

COMPOSERS: Ceuleers,Comes,Gabrieli and Tallis,Josquindes Prez,Maessens,Rebelo,Striggio,Wylkynson
LABELS: Harmonia Mundi
ALBUM TITLE: 40 Voices
WORKS: Works by Ceuleers, Comes, Josquindes Prez, Wylkynson, Striggio,Maessens, Rebelo, Gabrieli and Tallis
PERFORMER: Huelgas Ensemble/Paul Van Nevel
CATALOGUE NO: HMC 801 954

This live recording celebrates the



35th anniversary of the Huelgas



Ensemble. Its programming



(‘sommets de polyphonie’) assembles



great compositions of the genre,



several previously recorded



by the ensemble, with other



opportunities for Van Nevel to flash



his conducting strengths. Given



Van Nevel’s flamboyance, genius



and unconventionality, hubris in



recording was probably inevitable.



The heights Van Nevel achieves



in this traversing of peaks may be



worth the troughs. Has the art of



canonic composition ever been so



artfully sounded as here? In Josquin



des Prez’s four-choir canon, Qui



habitat, Van Nevel presides over 24



voices to rhythmically interleave each



separate line. The outcome is more



effective than his earlier recording



of this work: the toll of the bass line



of two neighbouring tones swings



against the stress patterns of other



lines, creating the sensation of being



in a vast bell tower. On the next track



the Ensemble becomes kitten-like,



playing precisely yet whimsically



with a melody – Mouton’s En venant



de Lyon – that scuttles between



16 voices in Pierre Maessens’s



adaptation. Here Van Nevel shows



his celebrated flair for digging out



contrapuntal gems from neglected



sources, although the 35-voice work



commissioned to honour the Huelgas



Ensemble does not compel.



The longueurs of this disc surface



in its best-known masterpiece,



Tallis’s Spem in alium, as Van Nevel’s



re-reading threatens to collapse



under the weight of his mannerisms.



Choices which formerly provoked



wonder – the clouds of sound,



removal of metric sign-posting,



and emphasis on rhetorical gestures



– now undermine the ensemble



and obscure the work’s interplay



of motifs. The recording quality



contributes to this, as precise



engineering allows sibilants and



woody vocal qualities to disrupt the



sound’s surface. Van Nevel devotees



will welcome this recording, but



other aficionados of polyphony may



have reservations.