The past two years have seen something of a revival of Robert White’s music. Like his older contemporary Tallis, he straddles distinct periods – the revival of florid style under Mary, and the more continentally orientated style of the early Elizabethan era. Both appear on this recording, which introduces several more compositions to White’s discography.
Voces Sacrae is a mixed ensemble comprising current members and alumni of Selwyn College, Cambridge. They sing White’s music sympathetically, in the manner familiar from many choral foundations in this country; theirs is a finely balanced sound, well matched in all its registers. Those who enjoyed the recordings by The Tallis Scholars and Henry’s Eight will welcome the opportunity to explore White’s music further. There is some duplication: the splendid Regina caeli is on all three discs, and the Magnificat features in The Tallis Scholars’ anthology, but we have here the six-part Lamentations rather than the five-voice set presented by Peter Phillips: a useful opportunity to compare the two.
It is true that Voces Sacrae’s counterparts retain the edge – Henry’s Eight for imagination and energy, and The Tallis Scholars for sheer stamina – but that is no more than one ought to expect when comparing two professional choirs with one that is not. The sound recording is not quite on a level with that of the competing discs, but at the end of the day these reservations don’t get in the way of the music, or the appreciation of the singing here. Not a first choice, perhaps (that must go to Henry’s Eight) but a confident recommendation none the less.'