OBRECHT. Masses — Beauty Farm
[20.2.219]
frabernardo.com |
medieval.org
To be released in May 2019
Jacob Obrecht (1457/58 – 1505)
Fortuna desperata a 3 [Antoine Busnois]
Missa Fortuna desperata a 4
Maria zart [traditional church song]
Missa Maria zart a 4
beauty farm
Bart Uvyn [countertenor]
Jon Etxabe Arzuaga | Florian Schmitt [tenor]
Joachim Höchbauer [bass]
liner notes
[20.2.2019]
medieval.org Remarks
http://www.medieval.org/emfaq/cds/remarks.html
24 May 2019
Todd M. McComb
———
With their Obrecht Masses,
Beauty Farm turn to two cycles that had already received worthwhile
interpretations on disc — as opposed to much of their work,
which has been devoted to relatively unknown music (or to new
stylistic presentations of music that had been performed by prior
generations).
In this, they turn in an absolute tour-de-force
performance of this music leading into 1500, likely the most forceful
& richly detailed on record to this point. (One might add,
crucially, that the sense of detailed variety doesn't interfere
with the coherent sweep of the mass settings, which is a possible
issue.)
In this, the choice of Obrecht is also striking, in that
his settings are especially transparent & sonically rich to the
ear: This is exuberant & ecstatic music, then, in a sense that
might be compared to Ockeghem, but within a more thoroughly structured
form.
Obrecht's music also tends to be relatively similar to itself,
at least within broad bands, and so the individual relevance of the
particular cycles is worth noting as well: The Missa Fortuna
desperata is especially illustrative & even canonical in
this regard, and so Beauty Farm's interpretation follows an enjoyable
— but not particularly assertive or dangerous —
reading by the Sound and the Fury, as
paired with the technically similar Missa Rose playsante
(another fine cycle to be sure).
One might moreover compare Obrecht's
setting to that by Josquin, who would appear to have been inspired
by it, and particularly in the Tallis Scholars
performance, which is both relatively more muffled interpretively
& more subtle textually. (Although that interpretation seems
relatively recent within this context, I should remind myself that
it's actually from 2009, i.e. ten years ago. The Sound and the
Fury performance was similarly over ten years earlier than Beauty
Farm.... Time marches on.)
The Tallis Scholars are also the
reference for the previous Missa Maria
zart, which as opposed to a mere decade of elapsed time,
was my Record of the Year way back in 1996! (It always seemed like
a strange issue within their catalog to me, but was also the first
Obrecht album of the CD era, as well as a virtuoso piece known for
its elaboration of extended sequences....)
The structural consistency
that Beauty Farm achieve alongside the pure vocal virtuosity of the
extended sequences is, once again, at another level of mastery
— & indeed their double CD was promptly added to
my personal list.
(Listening to this double album also proves beyond a shadow of a
doubt that this music can be extremely powerful & well-articulated
with only four singers!) The entire production combines excitement
with gravity into an inexorable momentum that seems to define
Obrecht's music....
That said, if Beauty Farm is going to start
re-recording mass cycles, why not tackle Josquin? Neither they nor
the Sound and the Fury have done so. Is there too much historical
weight, a sense of the "war horse" as the figure goes?
I think it's time: Let's hear, say, the two L'homme armé
masses....
[26.5.2019]