COMPOSERS: Tomkins
LABELS: Obsidian
ALBUM TITLE: Tomkins
WORKS: These Distracted Times: Almighty God, the fountain of all wisdom; Magnificat; My help cometh from the Lord etc
PERFORMER: Alamire; Choir of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge; Fretwork/David Skinner; Jamal Sutton (organ)
CATALOGUE NO: CD 702
For the Tomkins – an artfully programmed trajectory from the opening pavan to final despair followed by hope – the assured choir of Sidney Sussex College Cambridge (in whose chapel the slightly claustrophobic-sounding recording is made) and Fretwork’s irresistibly nuanced playing is added to the mix. It’s a reminder of the sheer range and depth of Tomkins’s achievement in ‘distracted times’ – and recorded in close proximity to the severed head of Cromwell (a Sidney alumnus), deliciously piquant too. Paul Riley