This disc’s curious subtitle (“Vol. 1 – Europe”) leaves me nonplussed. Has Euro-scepticism hit the British early music scene? Or will the next instalment be a survey of sixteenth-century Inuit throat-singing? (Now that would be worth waiting for.) What we have here is an anthology of familiar renaissance masterpieces ranging from Josquin to Allegri. The choice and range of pieces is suitably broad, though perhaps a couple more festive items might have been welcome. Regular readers of Gramophone will recall the complicated history of Allegri’s Miserere. Here, the first four-part verse is presented as it was originally set by Allegri (see the Westminster Abbey Choir’s disc, “Miserere”, Sony Classical, 7/96). Thereafter, the modern version in current usage is employed, with Ruth Holton ornamenting the top line with some flair (though the notes make no mention of the decision to conflate the two; they might also have pointed out that Josquin’s authorship of Absalon fili me is now disputed). The opening eight-voice Ave Maria by Victoria sees Magnificat at their best, especially in such a faithful and clear recording. At times, though, the dynamics of individual pieces seem to call for more imaginative rhythmic profiling: phrases like the triple-time excursion at “insipientium mori” in Justorum animae or in much of Gesualdo’s O vos omnes. Nevertheless, the considered placement of the larger-scale works by Allegri and Palestrina gives a satisfying structure to the disc as a whole.
Magnificat’s sound will be instantly recognizable as that of Oxbridge lay clerks past and present, with all the polish and security of ensemble one has come to expect from such groups. That brings me to a more general concern, one that goes beyond this particular choir and recording. Of 15 singers on this disc, only a handful participated in Magnificat’s previous offering (Ramsey choral music: ASV, 7/95). Now, there are undeniable practical reasons for the constant game of musical chairs played out on the early music scene (especially among younger, less established groups). Singers are usually paid per concert or per recording, and an ever-increasing number of ensembles relies on a relatively small pool of musicians. One can only sympathize with the itinerant singer who (like most of us) has to go where the jobs are; but the trend inevitably contributes to a certain homogenization, that sameness that foreign commentators often remark upon. Further, the pressure to produce discs of unimpeachable technical quality concentrates that demand on an even smaller number of individuals in the studio – and for that (he says, shifting uncomfortably in his chair) critics must bear some of the responsibility. But greater stability of personnel would allow each choir to develop a distinctive sound of its own.'