The King's Singers - The Triumphs of Oriana (2006) CD-Rip

In 1601, English composer Thomas Morley published a volume of madrigals called The Triumphs of Oriana. The music was intended to honor the aging Queen Elizabeth I, referred to as Oriana for reasons about which historians disagree (one version of the story is given in the detailed and informative notes by Thomas Elias). Each madrigal concluded with some variant of the couplet "Then sang the shepherds and nymphs of Diana/Long live fair Oriana," allowing the composer (there were 23 different ones for the 25 pieces) to strut his polyphonic stuff at the end of the song. People who have sung a selection of English madrigals in a high school or college glee club or choir will likely recognize a few of these pieces, such as John Bennet's peppy All creatures now are merry-minded, track 5. Recordings of the whole set, however, are not so common. This is because the quality varies widely. Thomas Hunt seemed to be struggling in Hark! Did ye ever hear so sweet a singing (track 17) when he wrote lines like "O most divinely dittied! A Queen and song so excellently fitted." Yet the variability makes the whole group of madrigals very attractive for the listener who has heard a few famous examples of the genre and wants to get deeper into it. One hears not only good madrigals and bad, but also works of various types that help in getting a handle on the expressive world of the music. Some of the pieces, like Long live fair Oriana of Ellis Gibbons (brother to Orlando), track 4, emulated the serious chromatic density of the Italian madrigal of the late sixteenth century (Morley based the whole idea on a set commissioned by an Italian nobleman for his bride). Thomas Tomkins' The fauns and satyrs tripping, track 11, is written in an older and more characteristically English style, with sober, even polyphony evoking the viol consort tradition. Many of the composers represented, such as John Milton (father to the poet who only stood and waited, yet hoped still to be served), are almost unknown but are not unworthy of being heard on that account. The King's Singers, who have tended in recent years toward experimental and crossover projects, proved with this 1999 performance, originally broadcast on radio on Germany's WDR network, that they could still play it straight with the best of them; the all-male group is expressive, fresh, and intonationally secure. A fine madrigal recording, recommended equally to madrigal fanatics and newcomers to the genre.