Agricola Masses

Agricola Masses

Beauty Farm
Fra Bernardo 246 8128 [CDx2]

This is a preliminary rating.

I probably won't say anything more substantial until I read the liner notes, and those are not scheduled to appear here until April....

For now, let me reproduce the opening paragraph from the corresponding file for the previous A:N:S Chorus release (from 2000) of the same two mass cycles:

This music is rather difficult to follow, but once grasped, it becomes increasingly compelling. The scope and level of detail in these masses is perhaps the largest anywhere. The motivic variation, ornamentation, rhythmic shifts etc. ... these are almost unprecedented, before or after. The first mass is the more self-contained, while the latter apparently misses its beginning, as well as seeming inconclusive at the end. The music in sum shows a very keen imagination, and is perhaps the very highlight of the pre-rational style.

To renaissance sacred list.