Search - Nicholas Gombert, Hilliard Ensemble :: Nicholas Gombert: Missa "Media vita in morte sumus"

Mixed feelings

Giordano Bruno | Wherever I am, I am. | 05/08/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"If I were reviewing only the performance, I would give the Hilliard Ensemble five stars instantly. But in the case of such little-known music as a mass by Nicolas Gombert, it seems needful to react to the total effect of the composition and the performance. So... I have to confess that I find Gombert difficult to enjoy. I've sung some of his motets, and read lots of his scores, and I sincerely admire his compositional skill, but I usually find his dense five-and-six-part polyphony too thick and too earnest to HEAR with pleasure. Though he was highly regarded as the successor to Josquin in his era, I can't personally consider him the equal of Brumel, Senfl, Victoria, Palestrina or others. Perhaps it's my limitation, not his. In effect, this disk by the Hilliards is the best advocate available for Gombert, and I will listen to it again soon to see if it grows on me.



Added several years later: Very helpful commenters have encouraged me to seek out other performances of Gombert, and I have done so. The best of the lot currently available, I think is the recording by Peter Urquhart and Capella Alamire, mentioned in those comments."

Take a pleasure

Igor Goryunov | Russia | 03/03/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It is fourth Gombert CD in my collection, which is corresponding to my opinion absolutely precisely how it is necessary to execute his works: with the good acoustics, perfectly executed low tones and a significant share of mysticism. First three are " Music from the Court of Charles V " on Sony (The Huelgas Ensemble), " Nicolaes Gombert and the Court of Charles V " on Eufoda (Currende Consort) and motet on "Lamentationes" CD on MDG (Josquin Capella). All other executions for me are easier disappointment or just a waste of time. By the way I do not know how the rest but for me all The Hilliard Ensemle's records which has been released on EMC for some reason seem more powerful, than on Virgin. There can be a matter of changing of the record personnel."

Superlative

J. Chiu | Washington, DC | 07/07/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Gombert presents stumbling blocks in the form of the seriousness of his personality and the density of his polyphony (Taruskin's commentary in his Oxford history seems quite accurate). However, the perfection of his musical world is a direct response to what he sees as the fallibility of temporal life. Notwithstanding the comparison that one reviewer has made to JSBach, Gombert's achievement I think is rather more comparable to that of Bruckner, whose works also struggle to reach out beyond the physical world to an ectastic spiritual plane. In this remarkable, dark composition, like a Gothic cathedral on a sunless day, the grandeur of the architecture dominates the contrasting but veiled musical colors passing through the stained glass. Gombert also evokes, in the name of the mass, the unbroken unity of life and death --- as did Poussin in his wonderful paintings on the subject of 'Et in Arcadia ego'.



This disc is not for everyone or every mood, and it stands almost solitary, like its composer. One of the great, uncompromising works of the period, to put alongside Pierre de la Rue's Requiem, Brumel's Et Terrae Motus, and, of course, many of Gombert's incomparable motets and his individual mass movements (such as the extraordinary Credo). Josquin specialists can rank here their own favorite work of the master. Gombert's unique voice, however, remains distinctive, and for this writer, the concentration and cumulative aesthetic effect is at least as great as Josquin's."