THE male-voice quintet Cinquecento typifies the multinational nature of early music. Though based in Vienna, only one of the five is Austrian, the rest coming from four different countries. Their baritone, alongside a countertenor, two tenors and a bass, is former Minster chorister Tim Scott Whiteley.
They offered a crash course in two unfamiliar mid-16th century Flemish composers, teacher and pupil Jacobus Vaet and Jacob Regnart, whose careers converged at the Habsburg court of Archduke Maximilian of Austria.
Conductorless, Cinquecento’s intonation is impeccable, allied to a creamy legato that maximised the acoustic benefits of the Chapter House. Whereas dynamics – piano or forte – would not have featured in either composer’s scores, the quintet sang at a fairly steady mezzo forte, at least until after the interval, which minimised light and shade.
Most of Vaet’s music here was in minor keys (barring the customary turn to major for final cadences, beautifully sung). Even at traditional moments of excitement – Et Resurrexit, for example – Vaet remained relatively torpid. Two French chansons amid the sacred splendours showed a lighter side to his personality.
It was the younger man, Regnart, whose Missa Christ Ist Erstanden was woven through the programme, who provided the most luminous and invigorating harmonies. And as the evening progressed, the singers became more relaxed, varying their intensity.
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