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Reviews

Early Music Review
Palestrina's cycle of motets from the Song of Songs comes from the peak of his career after his remarriage brought material security and with his standing at the papal court of Gregory XIII (to whom they were dedicated) at its height. This overdue release (it was recorded in 1995) does full justice to both the technical virtuosity and the exuberence of these pieces, providing a wonderfully honest one-per-part vocal rendering which allows the singers to enjoy Palestrina's really exceptional moments while keeping a certain restrained consistency over the whole cycle. Consistency is particularly important since it is a highly organised modal cycle; at the same time monotony must be avoided, as here, by highlighting those transcendent moments when Palestrina allows the text to dominate. The balance here is just right and I can thoroughly recommend this very fine recording.

Goldberg Magazine
The sensual, even at times erotic imagery of the Song of Solomon has inspired composers down through the ages, but Palestrina might appear an unlikely candidate. Is this not the same pious Palestrina who “blushed and grieved” that he had set love poems of Petrarch in his Madrigali spirituali? Yet his Canticum Canticorum (Song of Songs) is a large-scale unified collection of five-part motets with texts drawn fromo just that source, a collection Palestrina even saw fit to dedicate to Pope Gregory XIII when he published it in 1584. The answer to this apparent contradiction is in the allegorical interpretation of the texts that controversially allowed the counter-Reformation to see them in ecstatic, visionary terms, resulting in this instance in twenty-nine exquisite miniatures of great beauty.

Few of the motets have liturgical use, and they were unquestionably designed as vocal chamber music. This plus Palestrina’s extensive and atypical use of madrigalisms suggests that the motets were intended to be sung with single voices to a part, the course adopted inprevious recordings by the Hilliard Ensemble and Pro Cantione Antiqua and on this new Linn disc. All three versions have much of value to say about the music, and those who prefer all-male voices will doubtless respond to the robust performances under Bruno Turner on Hyperion. Conversely, the Hilliard’s are perhaps a little too concerned with sheer beauty of sound at the expense of textural clarity, leaving Cave’s splendidly recorded, superbly sung and finely honed performances as probably overall the most satisfying of the three. Cave employs women for the upper line in all but the six lower-pitched motets, whereas for some curious reason the Hilliards do so only in the first four. Strongly recommended, especially to those who have yet to encounter these tiny jewels.