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Reputation precedes The Tallis Scholars, and their 1980 recording of Gregorio Allegri's Miserere is so consistently enlightening that there would seem little reason for another.
Yet here we have two - one in the original (if not unaltered) form and one with an embellished soprano part from Deborah Roberts - providing the bookends of the CD.
It is also difficult to imagine a superior performance of this most shiveringly beautiful of choral works.
Both versions are sublime: initially striking is the enveloping warmth of sound and the fullness of tone, especially from the basses. With regard to the soprano top Cs - how many choral works require such a thing? - Ms Roberts floats them off with ease, soaring above the distant choir's fragile texture (perfectly recorded in stereo). And in the embellished version of the piece, her decoration is handled with great care, although those demisemiquavers can be lost beneath the texture.
Under the direction of Peter Phillips, The Tallis Scholars have an exquisite sound. Each section contributes, from the counter-tenor warmth of the altos to the delicate shading of the soprano tone. The group is small, but when recorded in close proximity, the combination of excellent diction and pure tone creates lines of immense clarity and purpose.
Palestrina's Missa Papae Marcelli stands as one of the pinnacles of choral music, and the mathematical structures and juxtapositions of syllabic and polyphonic vocal writing require the firmest hand. The performance here may lose something with regard to subtlety (we may justifiably blame the intimate recording), but such is the commitment present that this is easily ignored. Most striking is the forward propulsion, created through a malleable intertwining of parts that consistently illuminates melody and countermelody beyond what we could hope to hear. The lines in the Credo beginning Deum de Deo can be used as just one example, with complex polyphony emerging and gradually swelling until the following, shudderingly still resolution.
Pitching is consistently accurate, with no problems even at some of the more perilous entries, and textures are superbly thick and mellifluous. But what elevates the performance is the sense of ensemble, the mutual understanding within the group that can only be gained over long periods of time and the overwhelmingly powerful sense of expression present in every voice. And with two extra works - Palestrina's joyful Tu es Petrus and his antiphonal Stabat mater - given equally shattering performances, it is hard to think of a reason why this CD should not be purchased. And soon.
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