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Track(s) taken from CDA67653

Miserere mei, Deus

composer
5vv; Cantiones Sacrae 1591 xx
author of text
Psalm 50 (51): 1

The Cardinall's Musick, Andrew Carwood (conductor)
Recording details: November 2007
Fitzalan Chapel, Arundel Castle, United Kingdom
Produced by Jonathan Freeman-Attwood
Engineered by Martin Haskell & Iestyn Rees
Release date: February 2009
Total duration: 3 minutes 4 seconds

Cover artwork: The Martyrdom of St Peter before Emperor Nero (M Fr 71 fol.28). Jean Fouquet (c1420-1480)
Musée Condé, Chantilly, France / Giraudon / Bridgeman Images
 

Other recordings available for download

The Gesualdo Six, Owain Park (director)
The Cambridge Singers, John Rutter (conductor)
Contrapunctus, Owen Rees (conductor)

Reviews

‘The performances are admirably directed, responsive to words, clear in their exposition of counterpoint, carefully blended in the homophonic passages. The Cardinall's Musick is an expert body of singers who know exactly what they are doing’ (Gramophone)

‘This performance is unparalleled in its depth of expression and intelligence. The Cardinall's Musick unerringly leads the listener to musical events that unlock Byrd's conception … crystalline sound reproduction ensures that every detail is captured. The imaginativeness of the selections for this disc attests to the scholarly expertise informing its production. In short, this performance brings us into the 'heavenly kingdom' longed for by Byrd’ (BBC Music Magazine)

‘The works for St Peter and St Paul … positively shimmer with exuberance … the beauties of these performances are revealed: litheness, energy and intelligence’ (International Record Review)

‘The Cardinall's Musick appeal like the most ardent supplicants at the altar rail. The flowing lines are rich with character and the blend is a bold mixture of individuals’ (Classic FM Magazine)

‘The completion of this series will be a landmark, but don’t wait to hear this beautiful disc’ (Fanfare, USA)

‘The Cardinall's Musick is certainly one of the world's more authoritative sources for well-researched, committed, fully engaging performances of Byrd's music, and anyone who wants to know the entire range of his work needs no further encouragement from me in making this newest release their next acquisition’ (Classics Today)

‘It may have been quite a long time coming but this eleventh disc from The Cardinall's Musick in their monumental exploration of William Byrd has certainly been worth the wait. The programme is built from the Cantiones Sacrae of 1591 and the Gradualia of 1607 and focuses on Byrd's recusant music. Throughout their series of recordings this method of interspersing the three books of Cantiones Sacrae with the two of Graduallia has been highly successful and what is most exciting is that it allows Andrew Carwood to be the first director to record the entire music from the Gradualia in liturgically appropriate combinations. Opening this album is the exquisite six-voice setting of Descendit de caelis which immediately confirms that these are performances that are every bit as good as the previous award-winning volume. There can be very few singers in the world just now that have such an understanding of Byrd's vocal works as The Cardinall's Musick and here they give impassioned and immediate performances that move on from the early music stereotypes that used to dominate in this field’ (Musical Criticism.com)
Thanks to the efforts of editors in the twentieth century some of Byrd’s works have become well established gems of the repertory. One such is the five-part Miserere mei, Deus. A clear homophonic opening asking for mercy moves quickly into beautiful imitation. The text contains several words which seem to elicit particularly powerful melodies from Byrd, especially ‘iniquitatem’ (‘wrong-doing’) and ‘misericordiam’ (‘mercy’); indeed the melody of this latter word was one that he was to take forward and use in the monumental Infelix ego.

from notes by Andrew Carwood © 2009

Grâce aux efforts d’éditeurs du XXe siècle, certaines œuvres de Byrd sont devenues de véritables joyaux du répertoire. Ainsi le Miserere mei, Deus à cinq parties, dont la limpide ouverture homophone implorant la miséricorde se mue rapidement en une splendide imitation. Le texte recèle plusieurs mots qui semblent arracher à Byrd des mélodies particulièrement puissantes, surtout «iniquitatem» («iniquité») et «misericordiam» («miséricorde»)—de fait, la mélodie entendue à ce mot sera mise en avant dans le monumental Infelix ego.

extrait des notes rédigées par Andrew Carwood © 2009
Français: Hypérion

Dank der Bemühungen mehrerer Herausgeber des 20. Jahrhunderts gehören einige Werke Byrds nun zum Grundrepertoire. Eins dieser Werke ist das fünfstimmige Miserere mei, Deus. Ein klarer homophoner Anfang bittet um Gnade und geht dann schnell in wunderschöne Imitation über. Der Text enthält mehrere Worte, die Byrd besonders großartige Melodien zu entlocken scheinen, so etwa „iniquitatem“ („Missetaten“) und „misericordiam“ („Gnade“); die Melodie dieses letzteren Wortes nahm er sogar später wieder auf und verwendete sie in dem monumentalen Infelix ego.

aus dem Begleittext von Andrew Carwood © 2009
Deutsch: Viola Scheffel

Other albums featuring this work

English Motets
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Faire is the Heaven
COLCD107Download only
Libera nos - The Cry of the Oppressed
SIGCD338Download only
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