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.

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.

2017 Q3 music list

We're entering the final stages of our monumental Cardoso450 project, building up to the big finish on the Q4 music list. Our Cardoso focus allows us to explore another Palestrina/Cardoso pairing on Sunday 16th June - Veni sponsa Christi for our Patronal Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Another interesting pairing can be heard on 20th August with two settings of the story of a woman whose daughter is possessed by a devil (Matthew 15: 21-22). This list also has a strong English accent with music by Byrd, Mundy, Philips, Tallis and Tye, a foretaste of our forthcoming project in 2018/19 - more details soon. We're particularly excited to be able to perform Holst's 8-part Ave Maria for upper voices and two motets by Sweelinck whose sacred music is heard far too infrequently.