Recordings
Ludford - Missa Benedicta
Release Date: 31st Mar 2008
Catalogue No: K617206
Label: K617
Length: 63 minutes
Gramophone Awards 2008
Winner - Early Music
The music of Nicholas Ludford has been discovered only relatively recently.This CD of a cappella music was recorded in the glorious acoustic of St Martin de Hoff on the outskirts of Sarrebourg, a perfect environment for this extraordinary 16th century music. It includes the Missa benedicta et venerabilis with plainsong propers and the votive anthems Domine Jesu Christe and Ave cuius conceptio.
Listening to these superb performances, it seems extraordinary that Nicholas Ludford is not already fully acknowledged as one of early 16th-century England's most talented composers. Both in the Missa "Benedicta et venerabilis", and in two extended votive antiphons, his deliciously euphonious polyphony abounds in the long, soaring lines, quirky turns of melodic and harmonic phrase and thrillingly sonorous climaxes characteristic of this repertoire. It also has a graceful elegance all Ludford's own, to which this joyously committed singing does full justice. - 19th April 2008