Gregorio Allegri, as every schoolboy knows, is famous for writing the Miserere that was so precious that it was not allowed to be written down outside of the Vatican. And then Mozart heard it and wrote it down afterwards from memory.
Except, like all good stories from history, it isn't quite true. What Allegri wrote seems to have been the fairly routine plainchant of the verses and the embellishments that include the sublime high C was most likely added by an anonymous chorister who got no credit for it whatsoever. And if it wasn't for that then Gregorio would hardly be remembered at all. And, although I couldn't do it, transcribing 11 or 12 minutes of plainchant might not be the prodigious feat for Mozart that it might appear and he probably wasn't the only person who did it anyway. So, there go yet more wondrous stories, ruined by the letting in of daylight on them.
And thus what remains of the rest of Allegri's output isn't much and is heard rarely. But, having wanted to have other examples of his music, the Miserere having been a venerable favourite for decades, this new release was an essential acquisition.
What it reminds me of most is Thomas Tallis. I then find that Tallis died only three years after Allegri was born - 1585, 1582 - and so they are a couple of generations apart and I'm a bit out. But then the booklet notes tell me that one reason Allegri might not have been at the forefront of his time is that he wrote in a style already old-fashioned, school of Palestrina, one generation younger than Tallis, and I don't feel so bad.
The penitential Miserere never lets one down, achingly sorrowful and reaching forlornly for elsewhere. It is given a reading here fine enough to put alongside the classic MFP release of the Tallis Scholars from so long ago I can't remember. I'm afraid it is always going to outshine the rest of Allegri but that is not to say the masses here are not worth having. I am surprised how good they are and if they are all genuinely Gregorio's own work, at least he can be credited with a place among the masters of Renaissance polyphony without the assistance of the unknown extemporizer. It's a shame that anyone should ever be regarded as a one-hit wonder. I guess that Allegri would be mystified to see how his legacy has come to be regarded 360 years after his death.
