Sunday, February 27, 2011

Striggio: Mass in 40 parts (Missa Ecco S� Beato Giorno), I Fagiolini/Hollingworth ? review

(Decca)

The rediscovery a few years ago of Striggio's astonishing mass in 40 parts, by the scholar Davitt Moroney, was a sensational event: there have already been two separate editions, and now that the mass has been recorded alongside Striggio's 40-part motet Ecce beatam lucem we can appreciate the composer's long-lost strengths. Beautifully performed by I Fagiolini with soloists and countless continuo parts, the polychoral effects are striking but harmonically not very interesting. Striggio's secular madrigals are more alluring, and at the end comes Tallis's more famous 40-part Spem in alium, done here with instruments, incomparably more subtle and moving, a masterpiece.


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