Tallis: Missa Salve intemerata

Winchester Cathedral Choir released their first album of Tallis's choral music back in 1990 (CDA66400). The recording has remained one of our all-time best sellers and featured in our 20th and 30th Anniversary editions. This second album contains more beautiful, inspirational music by the most influential English composer of his generation, as well as one of the most popular Renaissance composers of today.

It is only in the past few decades that much of the early Tallis repertoire has become widely available. The Salve intemerata Mass is thought to be among the earliest of Tallis's surviving music and was probably written no later than 1530. The settings of the Ordinary of the Mass are here interspersed with votive antiphons by Tallis and Sarum chant. The sole source of the Salve intemerata Mass, and one of the sources of its votive antiphon model, is a set of four out of five original part-books thought to have been compiled for Canterbury Cathedral at its refoundation in 1540.

CDH55400  67 minutes 43 seconds
‘Skilled, thoughtful performances of three great works by a marvellously trained choir’ (Gramophone)
‘Vivid acoustics and mellifluous phrasing in the plainsong pieces evoke a calming contemplative atmosphere. The exemplary tonal finesse and beautifully judged dynamic response in the votive antiphon ...
‘The bright-toned singing combines the clarity and precision essential in this repertoire with notably sensitive shaping of individual lines and excellently judged speeds. The results are exhilarating ...