Cambridge University Chamber Choir, Timothy Brown - Music of Christopher Tye (1996)

Christopher Tye was a close contemporary of Tallis and other composers of the Tudor era. He spent most of his career in the prestigious post of Master of the Choristers and organist of Ely Cathedral. Only a proportion of his works have survived, but among them are motets and two Mass settings. Of all these, his masterpiece is surely the six-voice Missa Euge Bone – recorded on the present disc and by several other ensembles over the past few decades.

This recording is performed by the adult, mixed-voice Cambridge University Chamber Choir, diirected by Timothy Brown. Together with the Mass, eleven of Tye's motets are also included. The choir produce a very good sound and vocal balance; their voices are pure and clear, the upper voices secure in the high passages. Their expressive power is a bit restrained for my taste at times but, as we shall see, they do rise to the occasion at some important moments. The opening motet, 'In pace in idipsum', is a really beautiful work, treated here to lovely, responsive singing. Other very fine pieces are 'Quaesumus omnipotens et misericors deus' (track 8) and the closing 'Nunc Dimittis', another beautiful work performed here with great sensitivity.

But the main thing is the Mass setting. I've been comparing a couple of versions of this recently, and the work has grown on me each time. It's a setting of remarkable character, becoming more complex, adventurous and exciting as it progresses, and director Timothy Brown's choir responds well. I especially liked the crescendo at the start of the Sanctus, but in fact the entire work is well delivered and brought to a fine conclusion in the Agnus dei.

Recorded sound is excellent, as are the booklet notes; and, in principle, texts and translations are given – except that, for some reason, the texts for items 10-16, i.e. most of the motets which follow the Mass setting, are missing. Perhaps that's because these items are all to English texts – but this doesn't seem like a very good excuse to me. If you can make out all of the words in music of this kind better than I can, good luck to you.

I haven't heard all of the other recordings of the Missa Euge Bone – at the time of writing there are four available in all – but I have been listening to the one from the Choir of Westminster Abbey, directed by James O'Donnell. That is very good too, with weaknesses in the vocal balance but conveying well the scale of Tye’s masterpiece in contrast to the more intimate atmosphere of the present recording from the Cambridge choir. The result is that I would find it hard to make a firm recommendation between these two. Above all, this Mass is a magnificently rewarding work, and the present performance does reasonable justice to the profound sincerity of Tye's music.