Byrd: Laudibus in sanctis & other sacred music

Byrd expressed his feelings and those of the persecuted Catholic community in Elizabethan England through carefully chosen texts from the scriptures.In the works on this CD the source is largely from the Psalms. The exceptional genius of this great composer was his ability to convey these feelings through sublime music.The variety of mood and sound is "earboggling". Examples.Joy. The final track and title of the CD "Laudibus in Sanctis" : rapid repetition and imitation gives the impression that the voices are peeling bells giving praise to the Lord.Anguish / plea for mercy imparted by the low scoring and more "contemplative" music of "Tribulatio proxima est" and "Domine, exaudi orationem meam, inclina".The Cardinall's Musick combine scholastic excellence with sublime singing making this CD and indeed the whole series a unique musical and cultural experience.

If you were ever looking for one disc to use as an introduction to Byrd, this is it.With performances that have a very satisfying mixture of the contemplative with a feeling and drive that suggests that these sublime pieces are meant as praise to the almighty,important features of the mass and not just attractive soundwashes to be admired in passing. The Cardinall's Music are 12 strong group, but such is their clarity of diction and beauty of tone that the musical and spiritual effect would suggest that much bigger forces are at work then is really the case.To add the boon that the collection represents,the recording is first rate and very natural sounding, texts are included as is a helpful essay by Andrew Carwood.So couple great artistry with beautiful music and you have as is the case here,an irresistible set, worthy of any collection. If you want a really in-depth review of this superb disc go to musicwebinternational and consult the interesting and very detailed review by Michael Greenhalgh.

This is Volume 10 of The Cardinall's Musick's complete Byrd Edition and it maintains the outstanding quality of the previous discs. The music in this volume is from the Cantiones Sacrae of 1591 and the Gradualia of 1605. It is a lovely, varied programme of some of Byrd's truly great and innovative music. Byrd's position as a recusant Catholic in Protestant England is often reflected in both texts and music. Isolation and joy are both here, and it was a quite remarkable act to publish this setting of Salve Regina at such a time. Thank heavens he did: it's a truly wonderful piece among many other gems here. As a sample of Byrd's finest music, you couldn't do a lot better, I think.The performances are, as always from The Cardinall's Musick, simply fabulous. Technically perfect, the group show a marvellous empathy for and understanding of Byrd's music, and the combination of this and the excellent recording in a resonant acoustic which complements but never blurs the sound produces something really special.Every disc in this outstanding series has been a gem. This is no exception and I recommend it very highly indeed

Beaucoup d'argent! Geld! Plata! Penga! Scudi! Because this innocuous CD is VOLUME TEN of The Cardinall's Musick recordings of the works of William Byrd (1539-1623). And it's good! Very good, far better than I expected, since I'm usually skeptical of choral recordings of polyphony. More voices may amount to grandeur in a live performance, in a grand old abbey, but on a CD more voices often merely mean more distortion and spattered attacks. The Cardinall's Musick, conducted by Andrew Carwood, is a chorus of four women and eight men, with the alto part shared by one woman and two countertenors, and with only one true bass. Honestly, that has never sounded promising to me, and I've ignored the group's recording for many years already. But my instincts were wrong. This bunch can sing with tight ensemble! Most of the compositions on this CD are five-part, and some of them sound like one-on-a-part even when they aren't. The tuning is glorious, the horizontal independence of expression is spellbinding, the polyphony is so transparent that you can hear all five lines distinctly, the recording technology is good enough to quell distortion and to give very fine directional separation of voices, and best of all, you can't "hear" the beat of the conductor's baton. If the other nine volumes are as good as this, I've just cost myself well over $100.00!!!William Byrd's music is florid and passionate, closer in expressive affect to that of Johannes Ockeghem than to the Apollonian tranquillity of Josquin or Palestrina. That comparison - to the greatest of Renaissance polyphonists - puts Byrd in the company he deserves. Just as Ockeghem's music can sound improvisatory and Dionysian, Byrd's seems to crest above musical theory and rules of counterpoint, and to flow in every direction like a river of sound in flood. The composer's spiritual passion may have been fueled by his 'threatened' situation as a recusant Catholic in Elizabethan England. He was linked intimately with some of the leading Catholics of the times, several of whom were tried and imprisoned for treason or treasonous beliefs. Much of Byrd's music had to be published outside of England, and Byrd spent the better part of his life in rural isolation from the musical establishments of the Court and the major churches. The compositions on this CD come from Byrd's "Cantiones Sacrae" of 1591 or from his "Gradualia" of 1605, and thus represent Byrd at the peak of his development. You'll be pleasantly surprised at the variety of affect and tempo in this music; scholars give Byrd high marks for attuning his phrases to the texts he was setting, and even though rather few people today can comprehend Latin on hearing, the texts seem to carry meaning, emotional meaning at least, in Byrd's melodies. Parting thought: "A Byrd in the cart is worth ten on the browser."