William Mundy
gets less publicity than his English contemporaries of the 16th century, but wrote several impressive works which are recorded here. He was a generation younger than
Thomas Tallis
but died just six years after him, and lived and worked through several English political changes. Like
Tallis
, he adapted to Anglican service music in such pieces as
O Lord, the maker of all things
, which has an appealing simplicity. There are several shorter Latin pieces on this album by the
Choir of New College Oxford
, under the direction of
Robert Quinney
. However, the highlight, and indeed the highlight of
Mundy
's career, is the massive antiphon
Vox patrix caelestis
, which gives the album its title. This epic 20-minute work seems to have been a kind of throwback to the English styles of the previous century, when composers luxuriated in an almost medieval sense of dimensions and length. The work has been recorded by various groups, including
The Sixteen
and twice by
The Tallis Scholars
, but it may benefit from the somewhat larger spaces of
Quinney
's recording, with some 30 singers. It requires a muscular boy treble section, which it gets here, and those singers have to be balanced with other lines in the six-voice polyphony.
's performance clicks on all counts, with his young singers stepping up well to some difficult music. This fine release will be valued by all those who love the choral music of the English Renaissance, and it made classical best-seller charts in the late spring of 2025. ~ James Manheim