The Best of the Renaissance
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CD Details
Composer: Gregorio AllegriComposer: Thomas [Composer] Tallis
Composer: William [Composer] Byrd
Composer: Josquin Desprez
Composer: Alonso Lobo
Composer: Carlo Gesualdo
Composer: Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
Composer: Orlande de Lassus
Composer: John Taverner
Composer: Manuel Cardoso
Conductor: Peter Phillips
Performer: The Tallis Scholars
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 1999-06-15
Music Label: Philips
Soundtracks:
Music CD 1
- Miserere
- Spem In Alium
- Mass For Five Voices: Kyrie
- Mass For Five Voices: Gloria
- Mass For Five Voices: Credo
- Mass For Five Voices: Sanctus - Benedictus
- Mass For Five Voicesd: Agnus Dei
- Missa 'Pange lingua': Kyrie
- Missa 'Pange lingua': Gloria
- Missa 'Pange lingua': Credo
- Missa 'Pange lingua': Sanctus Benedictus
- Missa 'Pange lingua': Agnus Dei I - II - III
- Versa est in luctum
- Tenebrac Responsories For Holy Saturday: Recessit pastor noster
- Tenebrac Responsories For Holy Saturday: O vos omnes
- Tenebrac Responsories For Holy Saturday: Ecce quomodo moritur justus
- Missa Papae Marcelli: Kyrie
- Missa Papae Marcelli: Gloria
- Missa Papae Marcelli: Credo
- Missa Papae Marcelli: Sanctus - Benedictus
- Missa Papae Marcelli: Agnus Dei I - II - III
- Osculetur me
- Salve Regina
- Ave Maria
- Dum transisset Sabbatum
- Magnificat
Music reviews of The Best of the Renaissance
Music Review: Or, "Best Sacred Vocal Music of the 16th Century"
Rating: 4 Stars
My only major complaint with the Tallis Scholars' impressive compilation "The Best of the Renaissance" is its name. The 2-CD set only includes sacred vocal polyphony from the High Renaissance (16th century). That means you get no chansons, no madrigals, no instrumental music of any sort. Perhaps even worse, composers before Josquin are ignored: there's no Dufay, no Binchois, no Ockeghem - nobody who worked primarily in the 15th century. These omissions suggest that the Tallis Scholars probably consider the pre-Josquin period as late Medieval, rather than early Renaissance.
Once you accept "The Best of the Renaissance" for what it is - "Best Sacred Vocal Music of the 16th Century" - you can better enjoy its remarkable assemblage of High Renaissance polyphony. The first disc in particular is quite astonishing. The Scholars lead off with their signature performance of Allegri's "Miserere" - actually a Baroque-era composition in Renaissance "learned style." The Scholars brilliantly convey the "call-and-response" effect of dual choirs through exquisitely crafted acoustics. Turn this one up, turn off the lights, close your eyes, and you're in the Sistine Chapel!
The Scholars follow "Miserere" with an equally impressive performance of a work by their namesake Thomas Tallis - the 40-voice motet "Spem in alium." If "Miserere" hasn't overwhelmed your senses, this one will.
Two virtuoso Mass cycles follow: William Byrd's "Mass for Five Voices" and Josquin's "Missa Pange lingua." The former conveys a sublime, otherworldly beauty, while the latter is a superior example of the style of pervasive imitation that Josquin and his contemporaries pioneered.
The selections on Disc One are so impressive that Disc Two disappoints by comparison. The second set is dominated by two composers I never quite warmed to: Carlo Gesualdo and Giovanni Pierluigi Palestrina. Gesualdo was better known for his chromatic, genre-busting madrigals. His "Tenebrae Responses for Holy Thursday" are by contrast quite pleasing, but it's odd to hear sacred music written by a man who killed his wife and her lover. Palestrina's music achieves a sort of static beauty, but lacks forward motion. His "Missa Papae Marcelli" allegedly "saved" sacred polyphony, but arguably watered down the genre in its attempt to appease papal demands for simpler music.
The highlight of Disc 2 is Josquin's lovely "Ave Maria," a motet that provides yet another example of the Franco-Flemish composer's mastery of canonic forms.
"The Best of the Renaissance" expertly compiles the Tallis Scholars' best performances. Those looking for a comprehensive overview of the music of the Renaissance should be aware of its limitations, however.
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