John Sheppard - Cantate Mass: The Sixteen
Two discs and only 4 of 20 tracks are the Cantate mass - there's also a good range of motets including many of Sheppard's best known pieces, such as the Christmas motet Verbum caro factus est and the beautiful Libera nos. If you need convincing of Sheppard's genius, just listen to the Amen of Jesu salvator saeculi, redemptis - taken individually some of the lines sound positively 20th century in their modernity, and in combination it takes your breath away - it's hard not to say 'he can't do that!' - but he does. Perhaps the only criticism is that the Sixteen underplay the clashes so they aren't quite as shocking as they could be. Even so, probably the best introduction to Sheppard now on the market.
CDs by The King’s Singers
For more than 20 years, this group of singers from Cambridge University have delighted audiences with a superb range of a capella singing. Although they are best known for lightweight arrangements of popular songs, the King's Singers have a wide classical repertoire, and their light, subtle voices are ideal for renaissance church music, as the CDs here prove. The line up of the King's Singers has changed significantly over the years: on these recordings they were:
- David Hurley (counter-tenor)
- Nigel Short (counter-tenor)
- Robert Chilcott (tenor)
- Bruce Russell (baritone)
- Philip Lawson (baritone)
- Stephen Connolly (bass)
To find out about the King's Singers concert dates see their website.
English Renaissance - The King's Singers.
This is by no means a new recording, dating back a good few years, but it's worth having in your collection if only to counter a certain amount of intellectual snobbery. There have been times in careers of the changing body of men (and occasionally women) that have been The Kings Singers when their rather strained attempts at humour and kitsch arrangements of pop overwhelmed the fact that they have almost always been an excellent group of singers. This sparkling collection of music by two of the masters of the period, Thomas Tallis and William Byrd, shows that the KS can deliver. They give a beautifully polished performance of some of these superb composers' best-known pieces, including Byrd's Ave Verum Corpus and Tallis' Lamentations of Jeremiah. Simply wonderful
Byrd - Haec dies, Beata viscera Maria Virginis, Ave verum Corpus, Vigilate, Viri Galilaei, O Lord, Make Thy Servant Elizabeth, Sing Joyfully, Laudibus in sanctis, Tallis - Te lucis ante terminum, Lamentations of Jeremiah, If ye love me
