Medieval Chant, Tallis Lamentations

Tenebrae Consort is, as you might expect, hand-picked from the award winning chamber choir Tenebrae, currently in the Specialist Classical Chart with ‘Russian Treasures’, their 20th album and first for own label Bene Arte. Known for their instinctive ensemble skills, the singers are directed from within the Consort by Nigel Short who leads the group to attain music making of the highest quality. Focussing on the repertoire originally written for consort performance, particularly early music, Tenebrae Consort aim to shed new interpretative light on works through the combination of both passion and precision, creating an intimate and unique concert experience. This new recording draws on the Salisbury Cathedral tradition, renowned for its ritual excellence, observation and performance, in the centuries before the Reformation. Compline, sung during Holy Week, is enhanced with Tallis ‘Lamentations’: some of the most poignant and intense polyphonic settings of sacred texts used in Passiontide. These settings for five lower voices prove not only the depth of Tallis devotion to the old faith and the Catholic rites but also his mastery of the polyphonic art, and cement his rightful place as one of the greatest composers of the English Renaissance.
This is a lovely disc, the consort sings with a beautifully rich, smooth and rounded tone, giving the chant a fine combination of strength and flexibility. –Planet Hugill’..stically dark and intense, displaying this group s famous sensitivity towards musical structure as well as their exquisite harmonic control…’ –BBC Music Magazine’…The singing on the CD is very lovely indeed’ –Early Music Review