Search - Orlando di Lasso :: Lassus: Penitential Psalms / Hilliard Ensemble

Mesmerising Tapestry of Sound

Leslie Richford | Selsingen, Lower Saxony | 12/18/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The Hilliards can sometimes come up with a surprise, and that is what they do here, singing Orlando di Lasso?s seven Penitential Psalms with no less than ten singers in all and an instrumental ensemble consisting of two violas da gamba, a cornett, two trombones, a theorbo and an organ. These psalms were originally written for private performance at the chapel of Duke Albrecht V of Bavaria (approx. 1559), and were only published after his death some twenty years later. Presumably they would have been performed by a choir consisting of men (possibly including castrati) and boys (trebles), and by musicians in the employ of the Duke. The Hilliards manage to create a mesmerising tapestry of sound in which countertenors David James and Michael Chance play a leading, but not a dominating role. The instruments are used fairly sparingly, and my impression was that it was the interweaving of the voices that made this double CD something of a stunner. The recording was made in Cambridge, England, in 1985 and captures the sound of the performance almost ideally, the voices being distributed both across the stereo panorama and in front and behind. This is the stuff of which the Hilliards? excellent reputation is made of! Total time of the recording is no less than two hours and seven and a half minutes."