Gramophone Magazine
August 2023
Editor's Choice

Choir of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, David Skinner, Andrew Lawrence-King

Andrew Lawrence-King, Anonymous: Myns liefkens bruyn ooghen (arr. for choir by Andrew Lawrence-King)
Appenzeller: Myns liefkens bruyn ooghen a5
Vinders: Missa Myns liefkens bruyn ooghen
Pipelare: Myns liefkens bruyn ooghen a3
Ghiselin: Ghy syt die wertste boven al a4
Vinders: Salve regina super Ghy syt die wertste boven al
Andrew Lawrence-King, Anonymous: Pavan and Galliard super Ghy syt die wertste boven al (arr. for choir by Andrew Lawrence-King)
Févin: Fors seulement la mort a3
Vinders: Missa Fors seulement
Ghiselin: Fors seulement l’atente que je meure
Pipelare: Fors seulement l’atente que je meure a4

Jheronimus Vinders (fl.1525/6) is best known for the oft-recorded lament on the death of Josquin Desprez (d.1521), O mors inevitabilis, which has led many to presume that he was a disciple or even a pupil of the great master.

Now that his surviving works have recently been published in a modern edition, we are better able to place him among his contemporaries. He belongs to a rather small group of Flemish musicians who form the link between the Josquin generation and that of the mid-sixteenth century, featuring composers such as Clemens non Papa and Crecquillon.

He boasts a wonderfully imaginative ear with a preference for dark sonorities, and his music often surprises and delights. This is the first recording devoted to a selection of Vinders's works along with the polyphonic models that inspired them.

"This [college choir] has a clarity and cohesion of which many a professional ensemble would be proud. Under David Skinner’s directorship they shape lines with elegance and purpose, allowing Vinders’s complex textures to come across very legibly." - Gramophone Magazine, August 2023.