Tomkins - These Distracted Times - Obsidian Records: CCLCD702 - download

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The career of Thomas Tomkins straddled several reigns as well as the Cromwell era and this had an impact on his music, which otherwise reflects the influence of his mentor, William Byrd. Vocal... — Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 More…

Release Date: 5th Nov 2007
Catalogue No: CCLCD702
Label: Obsidian Records
Length: 66 minutes

Gramophone Magazine

February 2008

Disc of the Month

Tomkins: Pavan No. 1

Work length3:16

$1.00

$1.30

Fretwork

Tomkins: Almighty God, the fountain of all wisdom

Work length5:25

$1.00

$1.30

Alamire, Sidney Sussex College Choir, Cambridge, Jamal Sutton and David Skinner, Jamal Sutton
Alamire, Choir of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge
David Skinner

Tomkins: Hear My Prayer, O Lord, & With Thine Ears

Work length4:29

$1.00

$1.30

Alamire, Sidney Sussex College Choir, Cambridge, Jamal Sutton and David Skinner, Jamal Sutton
Alamire, Choir of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge
David Skinner

Tomkins: The Heavens Declare

Work length2:58

$1.00

$1.30

Jamal Sutton
Alamire
David Skinner

Tomkins: The 5th Service

Work length7:38

$2.00

$2.60

Alamire, Sidney Sussex College Choir, Cambridge, Jamal Sutton and David Skinner, Jamal Sutton
Alamire, Choir of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge
David Skinner

Te Deum

Track length7:38

$2.00

$2.60

Tomkins: A Fancy

Work length3:12

$1.00

$1.30

Fretwork

Tomkins: The 5th Service

Work length5:09

$1.00

$1.30

Alamire, Sidney Sussex College Choir, Cambridge, Jamal Sutton and David Skinner, Jamal Sutton
Alamire, Choir of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge
David Skinner

Jubilate

Track length5:09

$1.00

$1.30

Tomkins: O Lord, How Manifold Are Thy Works

Work length1:57

$1.00

$1.30

Alamire, Sidney Sussex College Choir, Cambridge, Jamal Sutton and David Skinner, Jamal Sutton
Alamire, Choir of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge
David Skinner

Tomkins: Pavan No. 7

Work length3:37

$1.00

$1.30

Fretwork

Tomkins: I heard a voice from heaven

Work length1:49

$1.00

$1.30

Alamire, Sidney Sussex College Choir, Cambridge, Jamal Sutton and David Skinner, Jamal Sutton
Alamire, Choir of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge
David Skinner

Tomkins: The 5th Service

Work length5:27

$1.00

$1.30

Alamire, Sidney Sussex College Choir, Cambridge, Jamal Sutton and David Skinner, Jamal Sutton
Alamire, Choir of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge
David Skinner

Magnificat

Track length5:27

$1.00

$1.30

Tomkins: Pavan "For These Distracted Times"

Work length3:09

$1.00

$1.30

Fretwork

Tomkins: The 5th Service

Work length2:51

$1.00

$1.30

Alamire, Sidney Sussex College Choir, Cambridge, Jamal Sutton and David Skinner, Jamal Sutton
Alamire, Choir of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge
David Skinner

Nunc dimittis

Track length2:51

$1.00

$1.30

Tomkins: Pavan No. 8

Work length3:38

$1.00

$1.30

Fretwork

Tomkins: Remember Me, O Lord

Work length2:40

$1.00

$1.30

Alamire, Sidney Sussex College Choir, Cambridge, Jamal Sutton and David Skinner, Jamal Sutton
Alamire, Choir of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge
David Skinner

Tomkins: When David Heard

Work length4:00

$1.00

$1.30

Alamire, Sidney Sussex College Choir, Cambridge, Jamal Sutton and David Skinner, Jamal Sutton
Alamire, Choir of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge
David Skinner

Tomkins: I will lift up mine eyes

Work length4:55

$1.00

$1.30

Alamire, Sidney Sussex College Choir, Cambridge, Jamal Sutton and David Skinner, Jamal Sutton
Alamire, Choir of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge
David Skinner

Reviews
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Reviews

2010

The career of Thomas Tomkins straddled several reigns as well as the Cromwell era and this had an impact on his music, which otherwise reflects the influence of his mentor, William Byrd. Vocal textures are varied, clear and satisfying; the instrumental works, too, exude sanity in what were turbulent times. Tomkins favoured the solo bass voice, which introduces four of the sacred choral works here, though others contain ravishing, if brief, duets for tenors and sopranos.
Best known is the lament on the death of Absalom, which with the verse anthem My help comethfrom the Lord crowns the disc.
In the choral works David Skinner has drawn a beautifully blended sound from his Sidney Sussex Chapel Choir of mixed voices; the solo parts are taken by members of both Alamire (the polished male vocal quartet Skinner founded in 2005) and the choir. Although the organ is present as a solo instrument in the title-track and in A Fancy as well as accompanying Alamire in Theheavens declare, Skinner transcribed the organ parts for the Fifth Service and the closing anthem for viol quartet – a liberty he defends in his engaging booklet-notes and which are so sensitively played by members of the renowned Fretwork.
The viol music and much of the church music date from Tomkins's time as organist of Worcester Cathedral, which came to an abrupt end in 1647; he composed the 'Sad Pavan' for organ just two weeks after the execution of Charles I in 1649. Once also a Gentleman of the King's Chapel Royal, Tomkins had good reason to feel 'distracted'. Cromwell happens to have been a member of Sidney Sussex College.
The college chapel provides a clear and sympathetic acoustic. It's difficult to know whether Tomkins or Cromwell would have been the more surprised. Tomkins would most certainly have been delighted.

A new label, Obsidian, launches with a collection of vocal music by Thomas Tomkins who, while renowned in his day, is now rather less fashionable than his mentor William Byrd. This disc should do much for Tomkins’s reputation. The performances fairly glow, and so does one’s spirit after traversing this glorious programme.
No surprise at the deeply felt playing of Fretwork, but the Choir of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, is new to me. They sing with as much sensitivity and soul as many more famous rivals. The vocal ensemble Alamire are marvellously balanced and they boast one heck of a bass in Robert Macdonald.
That Tomkins could compose such sublime music living at the same time that Oliver Cromwell cracked down on choral music is astonishing

International Herald Tribune December 2014

Where the Obsidian recording has the edge is in the fuller picture one gets of Tomkins's art, owing to the inclusion of some of the composer's fine chamber works, performed by Fretwork.

Tomkins - These Distracted Times

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