It's hard to tell from the title
Le Divin Arcadelt (The Divine Arcadelt), or from the subtitle "Candlemas in Renaissance Rome," what this album is all about. You might think it's one of the group of releases that attempt to reconstruct how music was used in Roman worship, rather than simply treating Renaissance masses and motets in isolation. Or you might assume it's an examination of Jacob Arcadelt and his music. Actually it is neither. In the words of
Musica Contexta director Simon Ravens, listeners "imagine themselves walking the streets of Rome on the morning of 2 February -- the Feast of the Purification -- some time at the end of the 16th century. At each major church we come to we enter and listen to a musical item." The novelty here is that the performers reject the idea (or, as they put it, the "grail") of a single authentic technique, and they believe that Renaissance Romans would likewise have rejected it. So, the listener's "walk" brings visits to unaccompanied choirs, to vocal groups of various sizes accompanied by sackbutts or cornetts, to single singers accompanied by an instrumental ensemble. All of these were demonstrably "authentic" performances that might depend on the size and layout of a church or even on musical preference. The last of these is the most unusual, and you can sample it in the performance of de Silva's Inviolata, integra et casta es Maria (track 13). The whole idea is both fresh and convincingly thought through. The trio of composers represented, Arcadelt, Palestrina, and the lesser-known Andreas de Silva, were all associated with the Sistine Chapel at different times in the 16th century. But they were chosen for a more specific reason as well: they cultivated musical styles that intersected with but were not necessarily determined by the performance choices discussed above. De Silva came from Spain, the probable source of the practice of accompanying sacred music with winds and brasses during this period. Palestrina was connected with the tendency to sing a cappella. The overall picture that emerges is that of a city with a vibrant musical culture that adopted ideas from a variety of imported sources, and the homogenity that so often occurs in recordings of Renaissance sacred music is absent. The singers of
Musica Contexta and the
English Cornett and Sackbutt Ensemble deliver an attractive, sweet tone that carries across the various settings. Chandos' engineers, perhaps regrettably, do not attempt to replicate the sensation of walking from church to church, but there's nothing to object to in the well-used sound environment of St-Jude-on-the-Hill in London's Hampstead Garden Suburb. An essential purchase for those interested in the performance of Renaissance sacred music.