An hour and a quarter of musical bliss.

An hour and a quarter of musical bliss. Jacob Clemens non Papa (literally 'Jacob Clemens not the Pope') has not been that popular with recording companies: a pity, since the Dutchman's music is extremely well made and enormously beautiful. Peter Phillips has written that Clemens was more concerned with general atmosphere than specific word-painting and that his extended imitative counterpoint rendered his music more old-fashioned, less personal-sounding. Which is perhaps true but, like the great English composers of the Tudor period, Clemens's music has an ecstatic beauty that carries all before it in a way that the utter professionalism of Palestrina has never accomplished for me.

Although something of a protégé of Peter Phillips, Doug Fullington cultivates a harder-edged sound than that familiar from The Tallis Scholars. Rhythms and counterpoint are clearer and the mystic glow of the music is to a large extent allowed to take care of itself — something it does admirably. These are concert readings with only the bare minimum of chant necessary for the music to make sense, as in the alternating verses of the Magnificat.

In the Requiem, which is entirely based on chant, it would have been especially revealing to hear the polyphony emerge from the chanted rite but it would be a terrible shame to lose the very beautiful motets and the Magnificat setting. Let us hope this is the first of many recordings of this repertoire by this superb group.

-- John Story, Gramophone [11/2005]