Motets

Beautiful and ethereal!

This album is an event - it really is - mostly because of the way it was recorded and performed. You just can't find anything else this satisfying for Gombert, who, many would say, is solidly in the top 10 of Renaissance composers.I like the editions that Beauty Farm use. Mostly you notice that finally there are leading tones where phrases cadence, not just in the top voice on occasion or something. There are also dissonances from false relations. I wish I had the expertise to analyse these editions further with ease, so I'd have more to say. Overall, I'd make the observation that the singers appear to be mostly young people who seem to be interested in performing the music in keeping with new findings and understanding of musica ficta. They're not old people still stuck in the past with obsolete ideas about modal purity or something. I hope their forthcoming Ockeghem album is like this one in that respect, and hopefully they go on to record Josquin and Obrecht. Those composers could really benefit from Beauty Farm treatment.I like the sound quality of the recording a lot. And the performances are beautiful one-voice-per-part, and benefit from being rather closely miked and excellently captured. You really hear the tone colour and beauty of the individual singers' voices.That said, the bass often seems slightly distant. Not always, but I think the record company felt they had to conform to tradition somewhat and not make the bass as prominent as it could, or should, have been (Hermann Finck spoke of pipe organs as an ideal for vocal groups to strive toward - don't pipe organs have magnificent bass?). I don't know, but I think if reviewers are seeing the bass as being prominent rather than slightly distant, they're letting their evaluations be skewed by those moments when it's louder (certainly in the minority). If you want to know what a prominent bass sounds like, listen to "Ergo ne vitae" from the third Gombert album by The Sound and the Fury (which I'd highly recommend by the way).I'm not sure I've yet heard a performance of a 5-voice or 6-voice Gombert motet where the singers balanced the parts successfully. I'm not even sure what the ideal way to perform Gombert would be. Pipe-organ like balance? Or different lines somewhat highlighted at different times? Which is what almost everyone seems to be doing to some extent, and that's probably a good thing for those who find these pieces difficult to follow. What's not a good thing is that sometimes some voice is just too soft to be heard properly/at all. From this album, an example would be the middle voice at bar nine from "Sancta et immaculata", at around 0:25. It's practically completely drowned out by the lack of balance between the voices, nearly impossible to hear EVEN if you know it's there. A shame, since it's a beautiful little phrase.Anyway, the bottom-line about the performance & recording is there's nothing much that can compete with this album, as far as Gombert goes.As for the music itself, it's mostly dark, it's mostly beautiful, and it's mostly very complex, and not really like anything else I've heard. It can often sound oddly dissonant to ears adjusted to Palestrina and post-Palestrina counterpoint. I think Gombert managed to compose these wonderfully complex, dark pieces partly because he didn't have to worry about modern counterpoint rules. I think he also just relished dissonance. And complex they are, let me say that one more time. I'm not quite sure you're supposed to be able to follow this music properly, but I enjoy trying.A few great motets missing from this double-CD album: "Media vita", "Lugebat David Absalon", "Ergo ne vitae". There was room for a few more on these two discs. Hopefully Beauty Farm is planning another Gombert album, and was saving some motets for that.(By the way, does anyone else notice occasional noise from the sound breaking in "Peccata mea" (and a couple of other tracks)? It's the kind of noise that you sometimes hear in recordings when the mikes were too sensitive, or you could say received too much volume. I wonder if that's what it is, or if it's a fault in my discs.)

This is an exceptional treat for renaissance fans – a two-CD set bringing us a substantial collection of motets by Nicolas Gombert, most of which have never previously been recorded as far as I can tell. The ensemble, Austrian-based if I understand correctly, consists of six male voices – countertenor, three tenors, two basses – and, in spite of the rather twee name of 'Beauty Farm' with which they've landed themselves, they are a superb vocal group.The quality of their vocal balance and texture is immediately evident from the opening 5-voice 'Veni dilecta mea' (CD1/1), with low voices prominent and sounding wonderful. Those listeners who often complain about high-voice dominance in such music will find little to criticise here, apart from occasional unsteady notes in the upper and middle voices. As for the music, nineteen little-known but marvellous motets by one of the truly great composers of the renaissance, it is stunning. 'Tribulatio cordis mei' (1/2) exemplifies one of Gombert's specialities of startlingly expressive dissonance. 'Si bona suscepimus' (1/4) is typical of the rich complexity of Gombert's six-voice polyphony – not declamatory like Josquin, but rather an intense, continuous texture in which no one voice is allowed to dominate the densely-woven counterpoint. 'Sancta Maria mater Dei' (1/6) is just as beautiful, this time with four voices demonstrating the same qualities.Among the highlights of the second disc is the six-voice 'Benedicta es caelorum regina' (2/3). I usually consider that no other setting of this Marian text could possibly match that of 'Josquinus incomparabilis' – but I have to admit that Gombert comes pretty close. The younger composer demonstrates that he both knows and reveres his predecessor's work, with a setting in the spirit of Josquin but very much in the style created by Gombert himself in its mesmerising, closely woven textures. And, like Josquin but differently, he creates an unforgettable cadence half-way through at the words 'Ave, gratia plena'. This is simply a magnificent work. My other favourites in the set include an absolutely beautiful 'Descendi in hortum meum' (2/6), and the closing 'Emendemus in melius' showing just why the composer was referred to as 'Profundo Gomberto'.Altogether, this ensemble do a wonderful job of penetrating for us the seemingly almost impenetrable, unremitting textures of the master's work. Moreover, they sing with insight and commitment and I think they come closer here to encapsulating the spirit of Gombert's adventurous, and indeed revolutionary, music than almost any other ensemble I've heard. The recorded sound is excellent in its presence, clarity and ambience. Booklet notes are a bit on the brief side, and we are given all the Latin texts but no translations; I suppose that's better than nothing. Gombert was already one of my favourite composers, but my appreciation of his beautifully complex work has been further enhanced by this recording.I hope we'll hear plenty more from Beauty Farm, especially if they change their awful name. In this case I've a feeling that practicality should take precedence over pretentiousness. Capella Gomberto? Franco-Flemish Solutions? Any other suggestions, anyone? Some association with music would be ideal but anything will do, just as long as it doesn’t sound like a rural health and cosmetic surgery clinic for ladies of a certain age – or, worse still, the title of a TV series set in such a place. When I posted this review on Amazon UK, I got a whole lot of rather facetious suggestions from readers and even added a couple more of my own – but I’m confident this won’t happen here on US Amazon, because you folks are much too sensible and, in any case, humour is not permitted on these discussion pages.Above all, though, please don't even think of being put off this exceptionally valuable contribution to the renaissance discography.

...this is actually a bloody good double disc set of motets by Nicolas Gombert. The ensemble Beauty Farm (crazy name, crazy guys!??!?) are an all-male sextet apparently based in Austria, though at least two of the members' names look distinctly Dutch. Much as the Low Countries seemed to be the font of all the greatest music of the Renaissance, central Europe seems to be the font of all the greatest exponents of that music right now. In style they remind me a little of "The Sound And The Fury" (who are also centred around Austria and are stable-mates on the Fra Bernardo label), that is to say that there is a real feeling of immediacy, as though these guys are performing extempore and spontaneously in the present moment. It may not be the most polished performance but it feels "real" and conveying the genuine spirit of the pieces as well as the spirit of the age in which they were composed. I don't know if Beauty Farm are taking quite the same lackadaisical approach to prior rehearsal as TSATF, but if they are, while TSATF are a bunch of old gits with decades of experience in performing Renaissance music it would be quite impressive if these Bright Young Things were winging it in quite the same way.They tackle Gombert's dense motets for 4 to 6 voices with real aplomb, and the character of the individual voices shines through clearly whilst still working so cohesively as a unit. It's also a real revelation as to the compositional skill of Gombert - I might particularly single out "Si Bona Suscepimus" which the booklet notes describe as "bewildering" - possibly not quite the right word they were looking for but it is quite astonishing and really makes one sit up and take notice. The intensity and relentlessness of these motets is perhaps almost too much to listen to both discs in one go. Maybe this is music which should be actively rationed, much as I do with TSATF so as to not dull their effect with over-familiarity.

Nothing substantial to add to the thorough and excellent reviews already posted. But I wanted to make one point: Beauty Farm very successfully do here what many other ensembles fail to do - they identify & shape the melodies in each part, with the result that each piece acquires a distinct 'personality', and those tunes really can be striking. I compared what The Sound & the Fury did with some of these motets, and it was obvious that they had not shaped the pieces so well - which finally explained to me why I'd struggled to like their Gombert recording. Yes, it's obvious that there's plenty of dissonance & it's easy to 'foreground' that aspect - but Beauty Farm manage to give full value to the dissonances by singing them as a result of clashing melodic lines rather than as 'crunchy note clusters' in a modern sense. For that, 6 stars! We need more polyphony sung through the melodic lines rather than sung note-against-note in a modern. chordal sense.

Great to have so many pieces by Gombert in one go! The performances are mainly excellent, maybe not up to the beauty of sound of Cinquecento, but close. Another reviewer has commented on the similarity with The Sound and the Fury (pretentious names notwithstanding), and a few of the quirks that I find annoying with that ensemble are present here - slight rhythmic waywardness, and swooping up to notes. The number of final minor chords worried me, too. But I'm immensely grateful to have two whole discs devoted to Gombert!

brilliant, clear, creamy and angel like !