Imperatrix inferni (John Taverner)

Album review

British Renaissance-oriented choir Alamire bulks up to 11 members (from the usual eight) for this release of music mostly in five parts by composer John Taverner, all dating from the years around 1520. They still create an ensemble clearly made up of individual voices, and the results are highly expressive. The adult, mixed-gender Alamire is a superb group in any repertoire, but this may be its best release yet: it unlocks the mystery of Taverner, who is a difficult composer. Not so much difficult technically: a choir can get away with more in Taverner's sweeping, irregular lines than in Josquin's precise points of imitation. But to capture the expression in this music, which lies right between the monumental, fundamentally medieval style of earlier British sacred music and the coming text-centered world of the Renaissance, is not an easy task. Taverner's lines are wide in compass, meant to be exciting in their freedom, but also elegantly shaped into clear text settings and passages in reduced texture. The balance and clarity achieved by Alamire and director David Skinner in this group of Marian antiphons and other works are striking, but they never get in the way of a certain muscle and verve without which early English polyphony just becomes inert. A very strong choice for any collection of English choral music or even for a starting place in this often frustrating repertoire.
© TiVo

Details of original recording : 70:21 - DDD - Enregistré du 23 au 25 novembre 2010 en la Chapelle Fitzalan du Château d'Arundel, Angleterre - Notes en anglais avec les textes chantés en latin et traduction anglaise