Missa Mexicana - The Harp Consort - Andrew Lawrence-King - SuperAudioCD - 2003.

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Missa Mexicana - The Harp Consort - Andrew Lawrence-King - SuperAudioCD - 2003.



Classics Today :

Especially dedicated to my lovely Latin Crew! (again!)


Eac / ape (img + cue) / wav.
Recovery : 3%.
Total rar size : CD/Covers / Booklet : 359 MB / 4 parts.
Total playing-time : 69', 11" .
Included : Full Covers, Full Booklet, CDs all in 300 dpi.

Tracklist :
Missa Mexicana - The Harp Consort - Andrew Lawrence-King - 2003.

01. Kirie - Vilancico : I. Villancico Canten dos jilguerillos [0:02:26.12]
02. II. Kyrie (Missa Ego flos campi) [0:02:10.70]
03. Gloria - Xacaras : I. Jacaras de la costa [0:04:17.50]
04. II. Xacara Los que fueron [0:04:54.63]
05. III.Gloria (Missa Ego flos campi) [0:03:25.00]
06. Credo - Corrente : I. Corrente Italiana [0:04:03.67]
07. II. Xacara : A la xacara xacarilla [0:07:11.53]
08. III. Credo (Missa Ego flos campi) [0:05:56.17]
09. Sanctus - Cumbees : I. Cumbees [0:03:02.05]
10. II. Negrilla A siolo flasiquiyo [0:05:11.70]
11. III. Sanctus (Missa Ego flos campi) [0:01:34.73]
12. Agnus Dei - Marizapalos : I. Marizapalos a lo humano [0:06:40.27]
13. II. Marizapalos a lo divino [0:07:52.53]
14. III. Diferencias sobre Marizapalos [0:04:20.00]
15. IV. Agnus Dei (Missa Ego flos campi) [0:01:37.25]
16. Guaracha : Guaracha [0:04:25.42]


Reviews :

Performance: *****
Sound: *****

This is an intoxicating mix of European and Mexican, of sacred and secular, of voices and exotic instruments. The core of what Lawrence-King explicitly calls 'a musical exploration, not a liturgical reconstruction' is a 'parody' Mass by Padilla, each movement a reworking of a (lost) motet, 'Ego flos campi'. Despite Padilla's origins in late 16th-century Spain, his glorious eight-part textures are heavily overlaid with the thrumming rhythms of guitars, their powerful harmony and key-word refrains repeated with the religious ardour of a modern gospel meeting: links with European Renaissance polyphony are often barely perceivable. Around the Mass movements is a heady selection of dances and jácaras, rowdy rumbustious songs inhabited by the characters of popular theatre but used to attract and edify congregations. Most of the music here is for the Christmas Mass. The rhythms are enthralling, mixing 3/4 and 6/8, thrown further by second-beat accents and unbalanced phrases – eight bars plus ten bars. The Harp Consort throws itself into this with the deceptively uninhibited, quasi-improvisatory freedom which only total technical command and inspired imagination can achieve. Colours are startling – cuttingly focused voices, the resonant mist of Mexican guitars, shawm, bajón (bassoon) and percussion including rain-stick, small bells and conch shell. A revelation not to be missed.


Classics Today : David Vernier - 9/28/2002.
How much fun can you have listening to a recording? Well, this new release from The Harp Consort on Harmonia Mundi will strenuously test the limits of that question. There is so much musical variety and there are so many sonic delights here that you can't possibly take it all in on a first (or second) listen. Centered around a parody mass by 17th-century Spanish composer Juan Gutiérrez de Padilla--a musician of impressive skill who spent nearly 40 years as maestro de capilla at the Mexican cathedral at Puebla de los Angeles--this engaging program offers a taste of the unusually lively liturgical music scene that thrived in the New World during the 17th century. If you can imagine popular dances occupying an important part of the church service--sandwiched between the mass movements were all manner of highly rhythmic and often textually suggestive, "worldly" songs--then you can begin to appreciate the incredibly colorful, atmospheric, and sonically alluring qualities of the villancicos, xácaras, marizápalos, and other idiomatic music offered here, in performances that never fail to hold our attention or keep us happily awaiting the next surprising sound or song. Just try to resist the seductive Madrid street song "Jácaras de la costa", or the "Cumbées", whose roots are so strongly African that you don't even have to wonder as to its origin. There are not only harps, but loads of guitars (six specially constructed, matched Veracruz baroque guitars), along with theorbo, gamba, organ, bajón, sackbut, shawm, and various percussion (and even a conch shell). There are singers--among them some of today's most experienced early music specialists--who really love to sing these sensual, expressive songs, and the instrumental work is unfailingly tasteful and stylish. The sound is ideal. Don't miss this very special, incomparable release, one of the outstanding discs of the year.


Gramophone : Tess Knighton : 4/2003.
An uneasy marriage of a Mass with dance
The Mass at the centre of this recording is the Missa Ego flos campi by Juan Gutiérrez de Padilla, a Spanish-trained musican who was maestro de capilla of Puebla Cathedral during the 17th century, but I have the impression that The Harp Consort feels more at home with the lively villancicos that are interspersed between the movements of the Mass. Andrew Lawrence-King, director of The Harp Consort, explains in the liner notes that their new CD is more 'a musical exploration' than a liturgical reconstruction and declares that Padilla's Mass 'breathes the spirit of the dance', though he admits that it is written in a more formal style than the villancicos, which are often intentionally based on popular dance rhythms such as the xácara or folk-inspired melodies as in the marizápalos. Little is known about performance practice in Puebla Cathedral, but I suspect that if strummed guitars were to be added to the accompaniment of any standard polychoral Mass setting in conservative 17th-century idiom, it could be made to sound fairly dancey, especially if it's taken at a fairly upbeat tempo as here. Even leaving aside questions of whether the music was ever conceived to be performed – or indeed was ever heard – in this way, the interpretation here does not come across as convincing: the light singing style and the deftness of touch of the plucked strings is much better suited to the villancicos and purely instrumental items. Even in these more immediately winning pieces, such as Gutiérrez de Padilla's A la xácara xacarilla, only the tenors (the excellent Julian Podger and Ian Honeyman) really bring energy and focus to the singing. In music that is often short-breathed in an essentially simple strophic style it is all too easy to fall into a stylised, even affected manner of delivery, and The Harp Consort, for all its brilliance at improvising plucked-string accompaniments, does not quite avoid this. Happily, soprano Clara Sanabras does create a sense of narrative in the extended ballad-like Marizápalos bajó una tarde. Even given the colourful qualities of the recording – rainstick included – and despite a worthy attempt to adopt a more earthy singing style in the African-inspired cumbées, the overall impression remains somewhat superficial: highly polished but ultimately self-conscious. Undeniably attractive, but if it becomes the cult disc I guess it set out to be, I'll eat my hat.

More infos about Andrew Lawrence-King : Here

More infos about The Harp Consort : Here


Reach Missa Mexicana :
RapidShare :
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

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Happy listening!