Tallis: Spem in Alium
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Music CD Cover
Composer: Thomas TallisConductor: Peter Phillips
Performer: The Tallis Scholars
Edition: Music CD
Format: Import
CD Release Date: 2001-06-12
Music Label: Gimell UK
Free Music Notes for Tallis: Spem in Alium
Free Music Review: Unrecordable!
Hit: 2 Stars
There are at least 15 recordings on the market of Thomas Tallis's 40-voice motet "Spem in Alium." I've heard perhaps half of them; this CD, recorded first in 1985, is typical. It may not be the worst or the best, but it hardly matters. None of them bear listening to. The piece has to be heard live, with all eight choirs of five voices distributed for maximum separation. It's utterly impossible to "hear" the intricate polyphony, crafted by Tallis to avoid domination by any one choir or voice, on even a very high-end sound system. I think this would still be true if the recording didn't distort the voices in direct proportion to the square of the number of singers, but that is exactly the effect I hear on every CD of Spem in Alium - tinnier, raspier timbres as the chords get thicker, until I simply pray for a solo passage. The only reason I could offer for buying one of these Spem disks is to get acquainted with the concept of Tallis's masterpiece, so that you'll be readier to hear it live if you ever have a chance.
The other six motets on this CD, also by Tallis, don't please me much more. The recording quality is still prone to white-noise most of the time. It's ironic that the Tallis Scholars should produce one of their weakest performances with the music of the composer they've named themselves after. Tallis was a successful, well-esteemed composer in the era of Elizabeth I, despite his Catholicism. He died a wealthy man from his music, something many musicians today might envy. Committed to styles of polyphony already unfashionable in Italy and France, Tallis composed to his own inner metronome. All the pieces on this CD are finely crafted, but the Tallis Scholars make them sound lugubrious. The Scholars, I have to confess, often fail to excite me. Singing with just two on a part, they manage to sound like a large choir, and that's not intended as praise. They're mushy in tuning, not crisp in articulation, not balanced in voicing. The sopranos always overwhelm the inner voices, and the basses have no authoritative independence. Many of the same highly skilled singers - Mark Padmore and Robert Harre-Jones, for instance - can be heard with pleasure in other ensembles, leading me to suspect that conductor Peter Phillips might be the heart of the problem, his heavy sensibility and his preference for women singers on a repertoire written for boys and men. I don't want to dismiss the Tallis Scholars out of hand, however. Their recordings of Josquin, Ockeghem, and Isaac are certainly worth hearing, but I can't recommend this Tallis by Tallis disk for anything but a garage sale.
Tallis: Spem in Alium Poster
This was the Tallis Scholars' first recording devoted to their namesake composer--and it remains one of the best Tallis discs available. Its centerpiece is the famous Spem in alium for eight five-voice choirs. This is a spectacular piece, with voices entering one by one, leading to a sudden, crashing entry for all eight choirs. The choirs then toss pealing phrases back and forth (listen with headphones!) and finish with a monumental 40-voice chord.Other treats include the popular Pentecost motet Loquebantur variis linguis, two beautiful settings of the prayer Salvator mundi, and the 20-minute votive antiphon Gaude gloriosa, which has intricate imitative passages for three to four soloists alternating with vigorous writing for full choir. --Matthew Westphal
This was the Tallis Scholars' first recording devoted to their namesake composer--and it remains one of the best Tallis discs available. Its centerpiece is the famous Spem in alium for eight five-voice choirs. This is a spectacular piece, with voices entering one by one, leading to a sudden, crashing entry for all eight choirs. The choirs then toss pealing phrases back and forth (listen with headphones!) and finish with a monumental 40-voice chord.
Other treats include the popular Pentecost motet Loquebantur variis linguis, two beautiful settings of the prayer Salvator mundi, and the 20-minute votive antiphon Gaude gloriosa, which has intricate imitative passages for three to four soloists alternating with vigorous writing for full choir. --Matthew Westphal
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