Cardoso450 CD reviewed

We’re delighted to have had our Cardoso450 CD highlighted in the July/August edition of Choir & Organ magazine. Our thanks to Rebecca Tavener for including us.

The CD is available now from Toccata Records.

The CD presents world-premiere recordings of two of Cardoso’s Masses, both based on motets by Palestrina. These present a fascinating insight into a common working practice of composers of the time - the parody technique.

Two parody Masses…certainly do Cardoso justice, with fine legato and characterful voices bright with resonance.

A close-knit group of soloists where singers retain their individuality has long been the norm of the choir. This is not necessarily the approach taken by other ensembles singing this type of repertoire, so it’s pleasing to see our ‘characterful voices’ praised.

Female sopranos and a mixed alto line bring a burnished glow to the upper voices.

Recording the motets alongside the masses allows the listener to appreciate the move, albeit slow, from modality towards tonality that occured in the nearly 60 yearly between the composers’ compositions.

With power, emotion, and joyful esprit de corps, they revel in Cardoso’s foward-looking chromaticism - a glorious tribute to the composer…

Rebecca’s write-up doesn’t carry a star rating but the disc is nevertheless “Highly recommended” and we hope very much that conditions will emerge that allow us to record and share more of Cardoso’s unknown works in the future.

Statement on the funding of the choir

A tradition of professional music

The Carmelite Priory has a long and distinguished tradition of professional music. Under John McCarthy’s direction, the choir played an important role in restoring polyphony to common liturgical use in this country, alongside the work of the choirs of Westminster Cathedral under R.R. Terry, and The Oratory under Henry Washington. It recorded Masses by Palestrina and Victoria, as well as three innovative ‘Plainsong to Polyphony’ records. Then, as now, the Choir of the Carmelite Priory has shown that sacred music sung with eloquence and skill draws the heart and mind towards the divine.

The issue of cost

A simple definition of ‘professional music’ is that the musicians are paid; those that provide the music do so as their profession. Engaging musicians of the calibre the choir currently boasts is significantly costly. Next year the Sir Giles Gilbert Scott church will be 60 years old; the priory, completed in 1889, will be 130 year years old. To facilitate the proper maintenance of these buildings, and in order to secure financial assistance from the Carmelite Order, the community in Kensington is making a number of changes to the church’s music from January.

Changes to the music

The choir currently sings the 11.00am Sunday Mass throughout the year; in 2019 we will sing on a termly basis, with vacations that coincide with educational institutions (details below). There will be fewer singers present on Sundays, mostly four singers instead of the current eight, with a consequent reduction in the choir’s repertoire. These changes represent a saving of over £20,000, reducing the music costs to £26,000.

Although this reduction in music is deeply saddening, the choir is working constructively with the community to support their work and to maintain a tradition of professional music that continues to enhance the church’s liturgy to the benefit of its parishioners.

We hope that in the fullness of time the music provision will be returned to full strength; financial assistance to facilitate this would be most warmly welcomed – please do get in touch if you are able to help.

Forrest-Heyther Partbooks 2018-19

As a result of these changes, we regret that the 2019 portion of our project will not be going ahead. We will try to include some of the music where possible, but the resources needed for the project as planned are no longer available. On the basis of our experience during 2019 we will see if planning a project for 2020 is possible.

Schedule

The choir will be away and there will be no music at the 11.00am Mass on the following dates:

Sunday 17th February (Half term)
Sunday 28th April (Easter vacation)
Sunday 2nd June (Half term)
Sunday 28th July – Sunday 25th August inclusive (Summer vacation)
Sunday 27th October (Half term)
Sunday 29th December (Christmas vacation)

Apart from these periods of vacation, the choir will sing each Sunday, and for the following services:

Ash Wednesday (6th March, 6.00pm Mass)
The Easter Triduum
Ascension Thursday (30th May, 6.00pm Mass)
Our Lady of Mount Carmel (16th July, 6.00pm Mass)
St Thérèse of Lisieux (1st October, 6.00pm Mass)
St Teresa of Avila (15th October, 6.00pm Mass)
Christmas Eve and Morning

Music Lists

We will produce regular music lists in 2019 and will endeavour, despite the reduction to our resources, to continue to programme interesting, unusual, unjustly-neglected, newly-edited and liturgically-appropriate music.

Is this the face of Cardoso?

Is this the face of Cardoso?

Image via Wikipedia

Well, in a word, no.

It is reported that King John IV of Portugal, an admirer of Cardoso’s music and supporter of his publications, kept his portrait hanging in his library (so the preface to Portugaliæ Musica tells us), but we have to assume that this was destroyed along with the library in the Lisbon earthquake of 1755.

Yet, a simple Google image search for Cardoso brings up this portrait, which also adorns his Wikipedia, CPDL and IMSLP pages. The painting is Portrait of a Young Gentleman (1600s) by Domenikos Theotokopoulos (better known as El Greco due to his Greek heritage). El Greco painted numerous named portraits, none of which is Cardoso, and there is no reason to suppose that he, living in Venice, Rome and, from 1577, Toledo in Spain, would have met or even heard of Cardoso. The Tallis Scholars’ recording of Cardoso’s 6-voice Requiem used this portrait as its cover and this appears to have been misunderstood by others as being a portrait of the composer. 

El Greco had sought to gain King Philip IV of Spain’s patronage, but the two royal commissions he did secure were not favourably received, effectively destroying that hope. By contrast, Cardoso was well-respected by Philip who provided him with a theme which became the basis for the six Missæ Ab initio, the sixth of which was the final Mass of our Cardoso450 project, as well as a theme for the Missa Philippina. Together with the plainchant-themed Missa de beata Virgine these Masses make up Cardoso’s 1636 Liber tertias missarum which he dedicated to Philip.

The very lack of connection between Cardoso and El Greco via Philip IV is an opportunity to reflect on the precious little information we have about Cardoso and so many other Renaissance composers who live now almost exclusively through their music. El Greco’s anonymous portrait may have served as an erroneous image of Cardoso; we are fortunate at the Carmelite Priory to have gained a more vivid image of him through having performed his Masses and motets during the last two years.

2018 Music List January-March

Our new music list is now available. We start off 2018 with the charming Missa Ad præsepio by George Malcolm, a former Master of Music at Westminster Cathedral. Its simple, pastoral style is a good detox after the excesses, musical or otherwise, of Christmas. 

Although the Baptism of the Lord doesn’t fall on a Sunday this year, we’re indulging one last piece of Christmas music with Clemens O magnum mysterium on Sunday 14th January. A much sunnier piece than the Poulenc, Palestrina and Victoria settings we sang over Christmas, it perhaps emphasises the joy of the Incarnation above the sense of mystery the others highlight.

Diego Ortiz Alma Redemptoris Mater has, it seems, been waiting in the wings for many years to be included on a music list. It is a long-standing favourite of the Director of Music, though we sadly won’t be performing it quite as it is here with doubling instruments and spatially separated choirs – from this performance you probably wouldn’t guess that it is only 6-parts throughout.

Cantar Lontano and Marco Mencoboni performing Alma Redemptoris Mater for 6 voices by Diego Ortiz at Poesis Festival 2012.

Two Gesualdo motets prefigure the sombre mood of Lent but are balanced by two 8-part Masses, programmed to mark the changing of Marian Antiphons, Victoria Missa Alma Redemptoris Mater and Padilla Missa Ave Regina cælorum. 

Our next project – The Forrest-Heyther Partbooks – starts on Ash Wednesday. This project will programme the 18 Masses contained in the partbooks alongside contemporary and near-contemporary works from the Tudor period. During Lent we perform some of the larger-scale works by Byrd, William Mundy, Tallis and White, pieces that will split between the Offertory and Communion. The details of the project are still being tweaked (maybe some time off after Cardoso450 would have been sensible) but will be available in February.