SACDs - Taverner

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Tune thy Musicke to Thy Hart

Tune thy Musicke to Thy Hart

Tudor & Jacobean music for private devotion


Amner:

O ye little flock

A stranger here

Browne, J:

Jesu, mercy, how may this be?

Byrd:

Why do I use my paper, inke and penne?

Campion:

Never weather-beaten sail

Croce:

From profound centre of my heart

Dowland:

I shame at mine unworthiness

Gibbons, O:

See, see, the Word is incarnate

Parsons, R:

In nomine a 4 No. 1

In nomine a 4 No. 2

Ramsey, R:

How are the mighty fallen

Tallis:

Purge me, O Lord

Taverner:

In nomine a 4

Tomkins:

O Praise the Lord, All Ye Heathen

When David Heard


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.

“We are, perhaps, in a wood-panelled Elizabethan hall, where in the early 17th century the family of a large house gather for their private prayer. Voices and viols mix in harmony, ranging from the familiar simplicity of Thomas Campion's "Never weather-beaten sail" to the elaborate verse anthem by Orlando Gibbons's "See, see the word is incarnate"...Another triumph” The Observer, 29th January 2012

“The beautifully blended voices of Stile Antico give this music with all the intensity that its emotional content merits. But then every work here fairly burns itself on the heart.” Sunday Times, 12th February 2012

“the performances are wonderfully fresh, revelling in the harmonic false relations and affectingly attentive to the import of the words.” The Telegraph, 18th February 2012 *****

“a varied treasure trove of seldom heard but extremely affecting music, nicely sung and spliced together with some darkly-glittering string In Nomines played by Fretwork...[They] easily persuade us that there is such a thing as beautiful simplicity.” BBC Music Magazine, April 2012 ****

“Stile Antico's sleek tuning and supple attention to words, and the studio recording, intimate but not claustrophobic, do bring a carefully plotted span (over 120 years) of sacred styles into our listening rooms with rare success.” Gramophone Magazine, May 2012

“another winner from the 12-voice ensemble Stile Antico... The two pieces by Thomas Tomkins, O praise the Lord and When David heard, epitomise the expressive richness of the style. But the simplicity of Campion’s Never weather-beaten sail is also gorgeous, and there’s an unexpected rocking figure, John Browne’s much earlier Jesu, mercy, how may this be?, that becomes a real earworm. The contributions of the viol consort Fretwork are equally fine” Irish Times, 20th April 2012 *****

“The group's singing is, as ever, breathtakingly beautiful” Classical Music, 2nd June 2012 ****

GGramophone Magazine

Editor's Choice - May 2012

Super Audio CD

Format:

Hybrid Multi-channel

Harmonia Mundi - HMU807554

(SACD)

$17.75

In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day.

Puer natus est

Puer natus est

Tudor Music for Advent & Christmas


Byrd:

Attollite portas

Ave Maria

Ecce virgo concipiet

Rorate coeli desuper (from Gradualia 1605)

Gregorian Chant:

Puer natus est nobis

Sheppard, J:

Verbum caro

Tallis:

Missa Puer natus est nobis

Videte miraculum

Taverner:

Audivi vocem de coelo

White, Robert:

Magnificat


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.

“Surely the pick of the new CDs for Christmas this year, this exquisitely performed and beautifully planned disc is another winner for Stile Antico...what a sound: perfectly blended, carefully balanced, its sonorities reaching back effortlessly to conjure up a vanished age of devotion.” The Observer, 17th October 2010

“Stile Antico brings delicious balance and otherworldly beauty to this recording of music by Tallis, Taverner, Byrd, White and Sheppard. Listening will restore meaning to the holidays amid the retail onslaught.” New York Times, 26th November 2010

“Here is a disc full not of the joys but the mysteries of Christmas, the perfect corrective for the frenetic materialistic scramble it now is...The pure-sounding voices are exquisitely blended, and their broad pacing enables consistently shapely phrasing and clarity of line.” Sunday Times, 19th December 2010 ***

“Conductorless Stile Antico may be, but they could never be accused of lacking direction or clear-sighted commitment to the works on this generously-filled album...The approach encourages long-range thinking about the music, inviting the ear to contemplate soaring architecture rather than surface detail.” Classic FM Magazine, January 2011 *****

Super Audio CD

Format:

Hybrid Multi-channel

Harmonia Mundi - HMU807517

(SACD)

$17.75

In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day.

Composers

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