SACDs - Tallis

Texts inspired by the dramatic events of Holy Week and Easter, set to music by some of the greatest Renaissance composers are the basis of this new hybrid SACD from Stile Antico. Included are two settings of the poem 'Woefully arrayed': the first by William Cornysh, the second composed for Stile Antico in 2009 by John McCabe (b. 1939). This is its first recording and Stile's first foray into contemporary music.

Stile Antico is the benchmark ensemble of young British singers, working without a director and conducting much of their own artistic research for their programmes and concise, yet entertaining booklet notes. Much in demand in concert, the group performs regularly throughout Europe and North America. Their recordings on harmonia mundi have enjoyed great success, winning awards, including the 2009 Early Music Gramophone Award for Song of Songs.

Their performances have repeatedly been praised for their vitality and commitment, expressive lucidity and imaginative response to text. Stile Antico’s recent engagements include débuts at the BBC Proms, London’s Wigmore and Cadogan Halls, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, early music festivals in Boston, Bruges, Barcelona and Utrecht, and at the Cervantino Festival in Mexico. The group has toured extensively with Sting, appearing across Europe, Australia and the Far East as part of his Dowland project 'Songs from the Labyrinth', and is regularly invited to lead courses at Dartington International Summer School.

Stile Antico (joined by Fretwork) explore long-neglected repertory: the wealth of Tudor and Jacobean sacred music written for domestic devotion, rather than for church worship. Culled from collections intended for use in private homes, these pieces by Tomkins, Campion, Byrd, Tallis, Dowland, Gibbons and others, offer a unique insight into the turbulent religious climate of the time and the thriving musical culture at its heart.

Stile Antico is now established as one of the most original and exciting voices in its field. Much in demand in concert, the group performs regularly throughout Europe and North America. Their recordings are the best-sellers on the harmonia mundi label, winning awards including the Diapason d’or de l’année and the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik, and have twice attracted GRAMMY nominations. Their release Song of Songs won the 2009 Gramophone Award for Early Music and reached the top of the US Classical Chart.

Few ensembles can match the breadth of Fretwork’s repertoire, which ranges from the first printed collection published in 1501 in Venice to music commissioned by the group this year. In the 25 years since its debut, Fretwork’s pioneering work has taken its members all over the world. Their consistently high standards have brought music old and new to audiences hitherto unfamiliar with the inspiring sound-world of the viol.

Fretwork’s acclaimed recordings of the classic English viol repertory – Purcell, Gibbons, Lawes, Byrd – have become the benchmark by which other performances are measured. Its arrangements of the music of J. S. Bach have garnered particular praise. Released in 2009, the harmonia mundi recording of Purcell’s Complete Fantazias won the Gramophone Award for Baroque Chamber Music.

Stile Antico’s newest programme centres on Tallis’s magnificent 7-part ‘Christmas’ Mass, based on the festive plainchant Puer natus est, in a new edition prepared by Sally Dunkley. The mass is interspersed with seasonal Tudor music, including Byrd’s exquisite Propers for the fourth Sunday of Advent, responsories by Taverner and Sheppard, Robert White’s exuberant setting of the Magnificat, and Tallis’s own sublime Videte miraculum.

Matthew O’Donovan’s booklet note cannot be bettered in terms of historical context, analysis and relevance. Stile Antico is much in demand in concert, performing regularly throughout Europe and North America in repertoire ranging from English Tudor composers to the Flemish and Spanish schools and early Baroque. Their recordings on the harmonia mundi label have enjoyed huge success, and their release Song of Songs won the 2009 Gramophone Award for Early Music.

While the latter half of the sixteenth century saw the first stirrings of the Baroque, this period also witnessed the creation of the finest cathedrals in sound, with their foundations in the distant Gothic era of music ... Composers vied with each other in daring and ingenuity, presenting works with twelve, sixteen, twenty-four and even, in the case of Tallis’s famous Spem in alium, forty different voices! The Huelgas Ensemble celebrates its thirty-fifth anniversary with a spectacular selection of these works, recorded live without a ‘safety net’.

At the heart of the religious disputes which ravaged 16th century England, Tallis and Byrd embody two opposing tendencies: the former's austere, homophonic Protestant psalm tunes, in which the clarity of the biblical texts was paramount, contrast with the latter's Catholic motets, which constantly heighten musical expressivity and emotiveness.Yet, far from being stifled by the rigour of one camp or the traditionalism of the other, the creativity of these two masters of English music thrived on such constraints as they dedicated themselves to the service of their art and of God. New performing edition by Stile Antico.

Working without a conductor, the members of Stile Antico rehearse and perform as chamber musicians, each contributing artistically to the musical result.Their repertoire ranges from the glorious legacy of the English Tudor composers to the works of the Flemish and Spanish schools and the music of the early Baroque. They are passionate about the need to communicate with their audiences, combining thoughtful programming with direct, expressive performances.They are also committed to developing their educational work, for which they have received generous funding from the National Lottery through Arts Council England.