Search - Henry's Eight, Jakob Arcadelt :: Medieval Carols: Arcadelt, Isaac, Mouton, Et Al

Of all the British early-music choirs of the post-Tallis Scholars generation, none has a warmer, more luscious sound than Henry's Eight, an all-male octet that has made marvelous recordings of the 16th-century composers Lassus and Gombert. On this, their first Christmas disc, they perform not only Flemish sacred polyphony but the very different genre of early English carols (the "original" Christmas carols). These carols' lively cross-rhythms and mixed English-Latin texts give them a folkish quality that the singers underscore with a more robust, throatier tone than usual. They use their usual honeyed sound for the liturgical works: in addition to marvelous performances of Heinrich Isaac's stirring Virgo prudentissima and Jean Mouton's serenely blissful Nesciens Mater, this record offers first recordings of Mouton's Christmas motet Noë, noë (joyful and sprightly despite its minor-key tonality) and Jacob Arcadelt's wonderful reworking of the motet into a Mass setting. Both Mouton and Arcadelt were widely admired in their day and are seriously underrepresented on record now--so this isn't only one of 1998's loveliest Christmas albums, it's an important addition to the Renaissance discography. --Matthew Westphal