Timothy Good

Christopher Tye was a close contemporary of Tallis and other composers of the Tudor era. He spent most of his career in the prestigious post of Master of the Choristers and organist of Ely Cathedral. Only a proportion of his works have survived, but among them are motets and two Mass settings. Of all these, his masterpiece is surely the six-voice Missa Euge Bone – recorded on the present disc and by several other ensembles over the past few decades.

The third Motorpsycho full length marks an important step for the band, both in terms of musical ambition and execution. The previous album Demon Box was a very diverse album but it could still largely be tagged as a metal/stoner album. With Timothy's Monster, the band found a more personal mix of heavy indie rock with psychedelic experimentation that fans probably identify as psychonaut-rock…

Maybe it's just the somewhat overpowered production – including the electric drums – but this album ended up being a disappointment. The tunes and the songs are good enough, and Schmit is in superb voice, and you have to love the luminous guitar sound in evidence throughout. But it's all a little reminiscent of what happened to the Eagles once they became a top arena act – all of a sudden, their sound started to get bigger and heavier than their music could carry comfortably…

This entertaining CD takes its name from a cantata, which forms one part of this recital devoted to the music of Georg Benda (1722-95), one of a distinguished family of Bohemian musicians who settled in Berlin in the 18th century and became part of the German enlightenment. Georg became Kapellmeister at Gotha in 1750 and gained widespread approval for his compositions and for his skill as a violinist, oboist and keyboard player. Mozart admired Benda’s music and carried two of his melodramas with him on his travels. Hyperion have put together a pretty record containing piano pieces (played here expertly on the fortepiano by Timothy Roberts), lieder and the above cantata for soprano or tenor by two of our best ‘chamber singers’ (which does not mean that they do not sing other genres, only that they excel in this kind of intimate sphere). It might be a good idea not to play the whole hour of music at one go but (say) to have half before dinner and half afterwards.