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.
