Search - Portuguese Anonymous, Plainchant Chant, Aires Fernandez :: Music from Renaissance Coimbra

What a powerfully effective discovery!

R. J. Stove | Gardenvale, Victoria Australia | 09/28/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"A BBC reviewer of this disc wrote: "Hyperion has an extraordinary gift for detecting repertoire which leaves us wondering how we ever lived without it." That sums up any legitimate verdict in a single sentence, except that one should emphasize how good this production is even by Hyperion's usual standards. Sound quality - which in the companion volume HOLY WEEK AT THE CHAPEL OF THE DUKES OF BRAGANZA slightly disappoints, because of eccentric balances - is superb here. Voices (this collection, unlike the Braganza one, consists wholly of unaccompanied works) have a beautiful sheen, and are captured with an admirable stereo spread; following these hitherto unknown composers' counterpoint becomes particularly attractive when one hears it through headphones. All competent hi-fi store owners should stock this release as an example of how to show off their equipment with wonderful choral timbres. Mostly sublime performances and fascinating booklet annotations, along with a brilliantly chosen cover picture that now evokes Mel Gibson's best-known film, complete a powerfully effective discovery. Only one of these motets - SANCTORUM MERITIS by a certain Pedro de Cristo, who died in 1618 - has ever been recorded before. If A Capela Portuguesa's plainchant sections did not occasionally sound a little stolid in rhythm, MUSIC FROM RENAISSANCE COIMBRA would be perfection itself. As it stands it can still be recommended with all possible enthusiasm to anyone enamored of the Palestrina school."