Search - Padovano, Huelgas Ensemble, Van Nevel :: Mass for 24 Voices

Grand but understated

esseyo | Jersey City, NJ United States | 10/01/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Annibale Padovano was born in Padua, Italy in 1527 and became the director of court orchestra of Karl II, Archduke of Austria in Graz. The mass here is for 3 choirs of 8 voices (my guess is SSATTTBB) and is in a style similiar to his contemporaries Willaert and Gabrieli. Van Nevel records this mass in 2 versions to demonstrate some possibilities for which this work lends itself to. Version I (on my CD) is the version for 3 voices and 21 instruments. Version II is the version for 24 voices accompanied by 2 cornetti and a sackbutt.The piece is very good and very polyphonic. However there are some things I don't like about the recording itself. Version I makes the piece sound aimless and so I don't listen to that version at all. My main concerns with the version II are that (1) the cornetti sound is way too prominent and seem as if they were recorded seperately and mixed in and (2) the choir sound is too light in the low voices (so I welcome the sackbutt). Because of the distant sound of the choir in version II, the cornetti sound is very blaring in the intimate sections. I love the cornetto in general but this sounds too artificial. It is not the performer's fault of course.As with his Brumel recording, Van Nevel is a little too understated in the recording. When there are very interesting harmonies or interesting vocal parts, it's almost like he tries to soften their effects as much as possible to maintain the "no measure/vocal line is more special than another" rule. On the other hand, the very first recording of the Padovano mass and the Brumel Earthquake mass were made by Van Nevel. It's a tremendous effort on his part to find/record great works lost in obscurity. I hope this new recording will encourage other recordings of this work."