This is the second instalment of a series initiated several years ago (9/97). At the time the first volume appeared, I remarked on its eccentricities but found it a refreshing contrast to the ethereal representation of Palestrina then dominating performances of his music. In this second volume, that contrast is still striking, but the eccentricities have been noticeably toned down – perhaps ‘refined’ is a better description. Tempos in particular no longer lurch about quite so wildly, the Mass is performed a cappella this time, and the sense of ensemble is rather more polished.
Yet there is an elasticity of pulse that is quite alien to Anglo-Saxon ensembles (note how the sudden increase of speed in the Credo at ‘Et resurrexit’ is gradually pulled back), and a ruggedness of tone that is absent even from Italian performers in the same repertory (I am thinking in particular of Delitiae Musicae, who record on the Stradivarius label). In short, I imagine that those who found the first disc too idiosyncratic will be pleasantly surprised. Though hardly one of Palestrina’s best-known Masses, De Beata Virgine will not disappoint lovers of his music (the final movements pleased me especially); and the echoes of Josquin’s more famous Mass-setting of the same plainchant can also be savoured.
Rather than complete the disc with a second Mass as before, Sergio Vartolo offers appropriate plainchant Propers, sensitively sung by countertenor Michel van Goethem in a rather slow, rhythmically flexible manner, and a little ornamentation. (Some may find these rhythmic inflections a touch overdone.) In addition, Vartolo augments Palestrina’s three-fold setting of the Kyrie by means of plainchant alternation, a practice for which I see little justification here (each of the polyphonic settings is thus repeated). There is also an organ setting by Cavazzoni of the Ave maris stella, played by Vartolo himself.
As a final touch to a very worthwhile issue, I cannot resist mentioning the recording venue, one of the most individual of Italian medieval churches, San Zeno in Verona. Interestingly, Palestrina is otherwise represented in the Naxos catalogue by the Oxford Camerata: one could hardly have a greater contrast.'