The personality is absolutely unmistakable. No other choir sounds anything like Westminster Cathedral, no other choristers soar through the air with such tireless sostenuto as these boys do; no other body of cathedral men have such a rich, red-blooded sonority to their voices. But can it possibly be that Westminster Cathedral Choir, now so used to seeing a bank of recording equipment arrayed in front, are losing just a little of their freshness and subtlety? Played alongside the choir's Gramophone Award-winning Victoria masses (Hyperion A66114, 10/84; (CD) CDA66114, 6/86), this new issue has little of the sensitivity and responsive control that made its predecessor a record to cherish.
Relentless, loud, wordy and anonymous: those are just a few words that describe the effect of these performances. There's a hardness to the attacks that makes the sound of the choir almost ugly at times, the choristers in particular often put their full weight behind exposed entries on words such as ''et'' and ''qui'', entries that might better have been edged up from a lower dynamic. When the men roar, there's an effect of interference bordering on distortion that comes about from the sheer confusion of so much robustness of tone. Confident singing is all very well, but the Gloria of the Missa brevis bursts at the seams in this aggressive, explosive reading. Speeds are exaggerated, some of the slow ones to the extent that the music almost stops.
Some listeners may love this ardent, extrovert singing. Personally I found it wearing, and turned with relief to that other Award-winning choir, The Tallis Scholars (Gimell) whose alternative interpretations offer a serious and musical view of this music without half the interpretation and soul-searching of 1988-vintage Westminster Cathedral.'