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See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | Byrd: The Great Serviceand other English music
The Cardinall’s Musick are acknowledged as the foremost performers of Byrd’s music. Under their director Andrew Carwood they have recorded the complete Latin church music, the final volume of which won the Gramophone Record of the Year. Now they turn to Byrd’s English church music, a genre which shows the composer treading a path between his own innate Catholicism and the requirements of the reformed Church of England. But far from sublimating Byrd’s genius this difficult situation gave rise to one of his most fertile periods. The Great Service was described as ‘the finest unaccompanied setting of the Service in the entire repertory of English church music’ upon its discovery in 1922. Written for ten voices, it is gorgeously lavish and grand—very different to the simple, unmelismatic style demanded by the Anglican clerics. Byrd did not publish it in his lifetime. Also recorded here are five beautiful English settings on sacred themes, but probably written for performance in the home. They are masterpieces in miniature: each work is so distinctive and demonstrates Byrd’s genius for word-painting, his typically Elizabethan wit and of course his imaginative handling of polyphony. “The singing is neat, clear and fluid, with beautifully elastic phrasing from the two tenors. The Nunc Dimittis provides the sweetest moments in the Great Service itself” BBC Music Magazine, Christmas 2012 **** “This is good news indeed...Carwood is particularly good at lightening the mood when Byrd adopts triple time...[The Great] really needs a larger body of singers for the contrast between 'verse' and 'full' sections to be effective. In the Magnificat the proud aren't scattered vigorously enough for my taste...Don't be put off by my reservations: the performances overall are excellent” Gramophone Magazine, December 2012 “this new recording is something special. Wheter it's because of the sheer experience of having sung so much of Byrd's music as to have assimilated his musical language utterly, or whether it's simply the raw musicianship and cultivated intelligence of the performers, there's a clarity and intensity in each verse that is spine-tingling.” International Record Review, December 2012 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Byrd: The Great Service
Steven Devine (organ) The English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble & Musica Contexta Musica Contexta translates literally as ‘music interwoven’, reflecting the group’s primary aim of presenting Renaissance music in the context of its original conception and function. They are joined on this recording by The English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble and the harpsichordist Steven Devine. The Great Service, consisting of settings of liturgical texts for Matins, Communion, and Evensong, is among the finest music by William Byrd for the Anglican Church. He wrote this grand-scale work for two five-part choirs who, for added contrast, would sing their respective parts facing each other from either side of the church. The size of the choir was used not so much for volume or declamatory effect, as for an extraordinarily rich variety of vocal textures and sonorities. As well as constantly changing the combination of voices, Byrd was exceptionally inventive in countless other ways, for example by varying the phrase lengths and rhythms, by throwing in unexpected harmonies, and by repeating lines in ever more elaborate ways. The endless variety with which Byrd played with the available combinations gives the Great Service a kaleidoscopic character, which is very rare in late Renaissance music. The Great Service is a prime example of how the written music only partially plots a Renaissance composer’s intentions for interpreters of today. It is the nature of Renaissance music, as it was written, deliberately to encourage different approaches. In the words of Simon Ravens, the Music Director of Musica Contexta: ‘That which we might consider frustratingly vague, they thought of as an open embrace of the broadest possible church of performers.’ He continues: ‘And although our performance resonates with thoughts of the Chapel Royal, we have not attempted to tie this recording, taken as a whole, to any particular occasion or place: the evidence for us to reconstruct any such event simply does not exist.’ It has been suggested, however, that the whole work may have been written for the fortieth anniversary in 1598 of Queen Elizabeth’s accession. “It's a fascinating piece of musical conjecture, even if the textures sometimes seem a little too overripe.” The Guardian, 21st June 2012 *** “One of the selling points is the use of cornetts and sackbuts to double the voices in the 'full' sections...In fact the presence of the instruments means that there is a sameness about the sound: splendid in its way, but undifferentiated...The other selling point is the use of Elizabethan pronunciation. An interesting experiement on both counts.” Gramophone Magazine, September 2012 “This is a Great Service of great innovation, but one which lacks the vocal and technical consistency of established Byrd interpretations.” BBC Music Magazine, September 2012 *** “Ravens creates an imagined reconstruction of its performance [at the Chapel Royal]. The result has an almost Iberian flavour but the sense of ceremony, decoration and wealth is powerfully conveyed.” The Independent on Sunday, 2nd September 2012 | | | (also available to download from $10.50) | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Tudor Masters: Byrd & Gibbons
Gibbons Anthems
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| |  | The Tallis Scholars sing William Byrd
“England has never produced a greater composer than William Byrd. His music for the Anglican Church has been sung without interruption since the 16th century. In stark contrast his Catholic music was not heard for over 300 years. This selection compares the formal public style of Byrd’s Anglican works like The Great Service with the plangent intimacy of his Masses and motets.” Peter Phillips Recorded in the Church of St John at Hackney and in Tewkesbury Abbey “This will delight fans of Byrd and this choir. Compelling performances (especially Ave verum) and a resonant if slightly distant sound. Some pieces though (the Mass a 5) have a surface, rather than inner, drive.” BBC Music Magazine, January 2008 **** | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | William Byrd - The Great Servicewith additional anthems and organ voluntaries
‘A very polished and confident performance. Quinney gives equally fluent renditions of the Voluntary and ‘Fancie for My Lady Nevell’, completing
a disc that fulfils its brief with distinction’ (Gramophone) “This particular work needs no introduction; indeed, some fine recordings already exist of this set, which has become a particular favourite of modern choirs. The atmosphere one associates with this combination of 'artist and repertoire' is present in abundance: warmth and intimacy combined with a certain reserve. At times the latter quality is perhaps too marked, or could have been leavened with a hint of extroversion: the opening track, perhaps, OLord, make thy servant Elizabeth. On the other hand the final selection, Sing joyfully (which, like the opening track, is sung a cappella) does indeed sound joyful.
In The Great Service itself, the character of the interpretations is entirely appropriate, and the choir may be heard at its best there. Its warmth of tone is due to the admixture throughout TheGreat Service of a chamber organ, sensitively handled by Robert Quinney. In the anthem Christ rising again the two treble soloists (accompanied by the organ) alternate with the full choir, a strategy that seems unconvincing because the music doesn't always lend itself to so strongly sectional an approach. Otherwise it's very polished and confident performance. Quinney gives equally fluent renditions of the Voluntary and 'Fancie for My Ladye Nevell', completing a disc that fulfils its brief with distinction.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 “The atmosphere one associates with this combination of 'artist and repertoire' is present in abundance: warmth and intimacy combined with a certain reserve. In The Great Service itself, the character of the interpretations is entirely appropriate, and the choir may be heard at its best there. The warmth of tone... is due to the admixture throughout The Great Service of a chamber organ, sensitively handled by Robert Quinney. ...a disc that fulfils its brief with distinction.” Gramophone Magazine, March 2006 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | William Byrd - The Great Service
| | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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