‘Perfect unanimity’

by Stephen Pritchard (The Guardian - 16th August 2015)

The sprawling majesty of Thomas Tallis’s Ave, Dei patris filia is brought to startling life here by both the fine voices of the Cardinall’s Musick and the scholarly detective work of David Allinson, who reconstructed missing sections in the treble and tenor parts, noting the piece’s close similarity to a similar example by Robert Fayrfax. It’s a remarkable achievement. The florid word-setting of this Latin piece is in marked contrast to the one-note-per-syllable post-Reformation English settings that make up the majority of the disc. Canticles, responses, Te Deum and the Litany are all sung with an almost string-like quality of tone and perfect unanimity.