It has long been known that instrumental participation in the performance of polyphony became increasingly important during the course of the sixteenth century and especially, it would appear, in the Iberian peninsula, and this is not the first recording to involve voices and instruments in this repertory. Bruno Turner and Pro Cantione Antiqua combined sackbuts and cornetts in their classic recordings of almost 20 years ago, and Jordi Savall and Hesperion XX have consistently adopted a still more colourful approach, with viols as well as wind instruments. The strong choral tradition in this country has, however, lent greater weight to the a cappella approach, and it seems almost as if we need to be reminded of instrumental involvement in sacred music of the later part of the renaissance. Recent research by Kenneth Kreitner, Douglas Kirk and Richard Cheetham, director of the Orchestra of the Renaissance and himself a sackbut player who has been a member of Hesperion XX, is helping to clarify what was actually played by the instrumentalists who, in the course of the sixteenth century, began to be employed on a full-time basis by the major Spanish cathedrals.
This disc represents just about the full range of possibilities, even including intabulated versions of sacred polyphony not necessarily – if ever – intended for use at liturgical services. The repertory chosen is all related to the Virgin Mary – the centrepiece is Morales’s De beata virgine Mass – and was originally composed for or at least performed at Seville Cathedral where an alta band of shawms and sackbuts was employed from the early 1500s. The sound of these instruments, whether playing polyphony by themselves or accompanying the voices, is, I think, quite glorious and surely recreates a vital impression of their original function to add to the splendour of the cathedral and its role in the community. Towards the end of the sixteenth century Guerrero reveals that cornetts and flutes were also used at Seville to perform polyphony, and to these we can add dulcian (bajon) and harp – a veritable ‘orchestra’ and hence the apparently anachronistic name of the ensemble.
The Orchestra of the Renaissance in fact comprise some of the best singers and instrumentalists from Britain and abroad, notably the countertenors Luiz Alves da Silva and Jean-Louis Comoretto and the bass-baritone Josep Cabre, as well as the cornettist Jean-Pierre Canihac who perform alongside more familiar names in this country such as Christopher Wilson and Andrew Lawrence-King. I think this pan-European approach, though it must stretch the logistics of availability of personnel and rehearsal to the utmost, has much to recommend it, and the results are consistently fresh and challenging. The Morales Mass is a masterpiece of its kind, and it is particularly good to hear his music alongside works by the earlier generation of composers at Seville such as Penalosa, Escobar and Medina. There are many gems, all imaginatively performed, and with a strong feeling for the idiom; this recording may well bring us closer to the sound-world of Seville Cathedral on those major feast days when the minstrels were paid to participate.
The recorded sound is good, too. I have found it to be a CD that I want to listen to over and over again, at home, in the car or to illustrate lectures, which may sound pseudy but represents a genuine need! Thoroughly recommended.'