Search - Thomas Tallis, Chapelle du Roi :: Thomas Tallis: Music for Henry VIII

This disc is an auspicious beginning to La Chapelle du Roi's survey of the complete works of Thomas Tallis. Volume I of the set covers works from early in the composer's career, before the English Reformation, including two lengthy anthems to the Virgin Mary, Ave Dei patris filia and Salve intemerata, along with the Mass setting Tallis based on the latter. Sometimes the long, winding melodies of these works can seem to drone on forever, but not when sung by La Chapelle du Roi: they fill the soaring, interlocking lines with energy and sing the reduced-voice sections with solo voices (a well-documented practice that has not, for some reason, universally caught on), thus giving a nice sense of contrast and architecture to these long pieces. In fact, their performance of Salve intemerata compares quite favorably to the Tallis Scholars' recording of a few years back. --Matthew Westphal