Pre 1550 music - extremely good

[bat]

I find this new recording particularly beautiful:

Requiem & motets by Clemens non Papa, performed by the Tudor Choir, on Loft records.

I consider this more beautiful than e.g the Bach motets.

 

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But this I did not like at all:

Missa Papae Marcelli by Palestrina, Westminster Abbey Choir's recording.

First ten seconds are promising, but then Palestrina runs out of ideas and repeats over and over himself. The downward vocal lines are meant to impress but are just boring.

And Palestrina was the one who was said to have perfected the renaissance polyphony. I competely disagree.

 

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Back to the Clemens record. Does anyone else dig this kind of wonderful music? Probably not. Instead the record companies offer us new recordings of Brandenburg concertos and Sibelius symphonies and Beethoven piano sonatas and the Art of fugues which have been recorded a zillion times before. And we buy them.

 

[pe-zulu]

Well, I find Palestrina boring too. But I always look forward to a new interesting recording of The Art of Fugue.

 

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Here's another one I worship:
2 Masses by Johannes Regis, performed by Schola Discantus.

Eerie, effortless masterpieces which prove that Regis had it all.