Sure, here it is:
http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=392095#review&AID=10274126&PID=3515667&SID=5f92q6mh5q
It's looks like a bargain bin CD, but it was the
only version that TLS liked. It's only $10.99 @ Amazon.ca, so I may go ahead and order that one as well - just to compare.
Have you heard the Tallis Scholars version? If so, did you notice the near/far effect that I mentioned? I'm quite curious about that. It doesn't sound like they're just singing more softly at certain points - it sounds like they are physically further away from the microphone(s) (I have no idea how many they would use). Would they switch between mics in mid-performance?
Thanks! No, I don't know the Tallis Scholars version, in fact I am simply unfamiliar with the work. I very highly doubt that they "switch" between mics, but TLS is the guy to ask about that. When I picked his brain on one of the Beethoven symphony cycles I own, I learned that there are indeed "hybrid" micing techniques, and so far I believe I have come to adopt his preference for minimal micing (sometimes with recordings that adopt more "advanced" techniques leave me with the sense of contrived spacial information).
Anyways, I do not expect "advanced" techniques with the typical choir in a typical church/cathedral. My guess is that they simply were singing with different dynamics, between
piano and
forte. Perhaps it is a matter of interpretation to bring out a certain line, or to create some contrast as to mix up their boredom or to be different, or maybe it was the recording engineer who decided to do that, but this I doubt.
That disc is quite the survey! I have really enjoyed some things I've heard by a number of those composers, such as by Tomás Luis de Victoria, or Francesco da Milano (particularly his fantasias for solo lute) who was the only other person besides Michelangelo to be dubbed "Il Divino", and of course they both had the best paying gig in Europe, working for the pope, hehe. It appears that both Paul O'Dette and Hopkinson Smith are performing on da Milano's work, and they are lute all stars. I've seen them both perform, the former a couple of times, with some beers afterward too. Paul is a very nice guy.
Josquin is the most well known composer of his time, but I am not a fan of
El Grillo. Ockeghem was his predecessor, some say his teacher (but I don't know about that), and his works are often marked with very low notes for the bass because he had a very deep voice, heh.
Monteverdi is a giant of composers, but I am still very unfamiliar with his work because, I don't know, I was never as drawn to this time of music. I never really enjoyed Palestrina either, and maybe I resent him for being on the
Council of Trent that forever limited the insane (in a good way) polyphony of the height of Renaissance music. His music is simply boring to me in comparison to the composers that he helped send off into the secular realm of music.
In the closing of the review in your link, I read that the reviewer had just received two recent arrivals that he was impressed with, and one of them is by someone I took a class with, Morten Lauridsen. I should be ashamed of myself for not owning any of his recordings. Maybe I'll soon pick up
Lux Aeterna. Heck, I'm thinking of picking up some da Milano and Victoria as well. Gee, thanks for spending my money! TLS Guy, if/when you read this, I want a Victoria recommendation, pronto!
