The Marian Consort, Rory McCleery - Christmas With The Shepherds

Published Friday 31st October 2014
The Marian Consort, Rory McCleery - Christmas With The Shepherds
The Marian Consort, Rory McCleery - Christmas With The Shepherds

STYLE: Choral
RATING 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8
OUR PRODUCT CODE: 153920-
LABEL: Delphian DCD34115
FORMAT: CD Album
ITEMS: 1

Reviewed by Steven Whitehead

The Marian Consort have been favourably compared with the Tallis Scholars. Both are small choirs from Oxford using scholarly research to track down their material and both sing Renaissance polyphony supremely well. The Consort's director is Rory McCleery and it is his research that has led to this programme. The starting point is a motet by Jean Mouton (pre 1459-1522) that became well established in the repertoire of the Choir of the Sistine Chapel for a century after its composition around 1515. Thus when Cristóbal de Morales (c 1500-1553) arrived to sing in the papal chapel he took Mouton's theme as the basis of his own mass. Later still the same text was used by Annibale Stabile (c 1535-1595) and it is a world premiere recording of this motet that closes the disc. As we have said when reviewing earlier releases by the Marian Consort, all this may seem rather daunting to those unfamiliar with Renaissance polyphony but it is worth the effort. The different combinations from the nine vocalists are all pleasing with the voices weaving in and around each other, all captured superbly by producer/engineer Paul Baxter in the resonant acoustic of Merton College Chapel, Oxford. The texts with translation are provided but I am sure you know the story of the shepherds being led to seek the infant Jesus in Bethlehem (although I did not realise that they sang a mass once they got there). Clearly this is music of its time and place: the splendour of the Vatican rather than the humble stable in Bethlehem. Listeners who are ready to go beyond Palestrina and Tallis will get much pleasure from this release.

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