Byrd / Tallis: … in chains of gold … - CD Booklet

BYRD TALLIS

... in chains of gold ...

DUNEDIN CONSORT

WILLIAM BYRD (1539/40–1623) THOMAS TALLIS (c.1505–1585) … in chains of gold …

1

Byrd

Prelude in C*

[1:09]

2

Tallis

O nata lux a 4

[2:01]

3

Byrd

Laetentur caeli a 5

[3:00]

4

Tallis

Salvator mundi I a 5

[2:59]

5

Tallis

Organ hymn I on Veni redemptor gentium*

[1:26]

6

Tallis

Organ hymn II on Veni redemptor gentium*

[1:25]

Byrd 7

Mass for Five Voices Kyrie

[1:46]

8

Gloria

[4:18]

9

[Plainsong] Collect

[1:11] [8:05]

D U N E D I N C ON S O R T

Susan Hamilton soprano Clare Wilkinson mezzo-soprano Ashley Turnell tenor Warren Trevelyan-Jones tenor Matthew Brook bass

10

Credo

11

John Kitchen organ*

[Plainsong] Sursum corda

[2:01]

12

Sanctus

[2:22]

13

Benedictus

[1:42]

14

[Plainsong] Pax Domini

[0:25]

15

Agnus Dei

[3:40]

16

[Plainsong] Ite missa est

[0:37] [2:35]

Organ built by Neil Richerby, Lammermuir Pipe Organs, 1999 Purchased with a Scottish Arts Council National Lottery Fund Award Dunedin Consort gratefully acknowledges the support of Walter Scott & Partners Ltd in the production of this recording Recorded on 19-23 January 2003 at Crichton Collegiate Church, Midlothian Producer: Ben Parry Engineer: Paul Baxter 24-bit digital editing: Paul Baxter 24-bit digital mastering: Paul Baxter

Design: John Christ Translations from Latin: Henry Howard Booklet editor: John Fallas Delphian Records Ltd – Edinburgh – UK www.delphianrecords.co.uk

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17

Byrd

Organ hymn on Clarifica me, Pater*

18

Byrd

Gaudeamus omnes a 5

[5:18]

19

Tallis

O sacrum convivium a 5

[3:25]

Byrd

Justorum animae a 5

20

Total playing time

[2:51] [52:28]

Notes on the music The life of William Byrd glows against a tenebrous background of fear and faith: how those two profound influences worked on the creative mind of a musical genius is a question that we can only answer in part, but to examine his creativity without placing it in historical context is to miss much of what makes him one of the exceptional figures in British musical history.

To consider him without also acknowledging his friend and colleague – the musical elder statesman of the Tudor period, Thomas Tallis – is to reduce our opportunity to appreciate him more fully. The political, cultural and religious turmoil of Tallis’s early career is the background to Byrd just as much as is the older composer’s educational influence. Our modern obsession with personality leads us to search for clues to the man behind the music and, once again, this search is informed by comparison with Tallis – as the greatest innovators and creators of English vocal and keyboard music of their day, their histories are inextricably intertwined.

Their joint musical and spiritual legacy is immeasurable and we may infer something, perhaps, about them as people from their careers and works: Tallis the mentor, fatherfigure and friend, canny and diplomatic; Byrd the uncompromising Catholic, obsessive, driven, even pugnacious – something evinced by his property ownership and litigation in later life.

The first recorded reference to Tallis appears around 1530 in the accounts of the Benedictine priory of Dover, where he received an annual salary of £2 for the post of joculator organum (player of the organ). The priory was dissolved in 1535, and we next encounter him in London, where he begins to appear in the accounts of St Mary-at-Hill in 1537. In 1538 he moved to Waltham Abbey where, once again, he went through the disruption of dissolution in 1540 – it was the last of the monastic foundations to be dissolved by order of Henry VIII. In 1541 he appears in Canterbury Cathedral as a lay clerk, whence in 1543 he moved once again to London to take up an appointment as a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal, beginning what would turn out to be around forty years of royal service. Tallis’s music reflects the religious pendulum that swung England violently through great and often tragic changes. Each of the four Tudor monarchs he served had a different view of what should be England’s ‘true faith’, so here’s a potted resumé: Henry VIII – the driving force behind the Reformation, albeit for personal and political ends. Creates, largely through the efforts of Thomas Cranmer (Archbishop of Canterbury and inspired author of the Book of Common Prayer), the foundations of Anglicanism.

English begins to replace Latin.

Edward VI – had he lived to manhood may well have imposed a Calvinist, Presbyterian form of worship

upon England under the zealous reforming influence of the Lord Protector, Somerset. The bounds of approved liturgical practice are narrowed and the use of the vernacular deemed essential.

Mary I – returns England to Rome, earning the sobriquet ‘Bloody Mary’ as she follows her mother’s Spanish brand of fanaticism, torturing and burning (Cranmer was one of her victims) her way back to ‘absolution’ for the nation. Latin is, once again, the language of the liturgy.

Elizabeth I – whose pragmatic Protestantism preserves music and other church ‘trimmings’ whilst keeping hard-line Reformers from getting it all their own way. The Anglican (basically akin to Lutheran) approach to worship begins to find its future form, largely because Elizabeth, the intellectual aesthete with a refined sense of the numinous, wouldn’t give up the things she appreciated in church. English reigns in the Book of Common Prayer, but Good Queen Bess enjoyed her polyphony in Latin.

All this confusion allowed extremists of many persuasions to flourish in turn amidst the general paranoia. In spite of the long, seemingly settled Elizabethan era, these festering undercurrents will lead, after the accession of James I and a succession of increasingly ineffective Stuart monarchs, to the Gunpowder Plot (1605), the English Civil War (1640s) and much ongoing misery with poisoned tentacles reaching even into the present day. Tallis managed to avoid

being identified with the wrong faith at the wrong time, a fact which has led to speculation about his personal affiliations: was he a musical ‘Vicar of Bray’, turning his religious coat as the balance of power dictated? The evidence – in particular his links to various patrons and colleagues – seems to indicate that Tallis, like Byrd, remained a Roman Catholic all along.

Byrd was born in London in 1539 or 1540, and it is traditional to assume that he was a chorister of the Chapel Royal under the direction of Tallis – the beginning of a long association – and that Tallis retained him as an assistant after his voice broke. No doubt Tallis’s influence helped the younger man obtain the post of Organist and Master of the Choristers of Lincoln Cathedral in 1563, where he stayed for a decade in spite of clashes with the Chapter regarding the ‘popish’ nature of his instrumental contributions to the liturgy. It was in these magnificent surroundings that he honed his craft, and he seems to have been conscious of the need to develop his expertise in as many forms and styles as possible with a view to greater advancement.

In 1572 the death of Robert Parsons created a vacancy in the Chapel Royal, and Byrd was sworn in and described as joint organist with Tallis. In 1575 the pair were granted the first music-printing monopoly under royal patronage: an achievement which reveals how effectively they worked their influential contacts, both for patronage and

Notes on the music protection. Elizabeth I accepted the dedication of their joint production, the Cantiones Sacrae, probably for her private Latin service in the Chapel Royal, sending out an unmistakable message to detractors. Byrd surely learned the craft of entrepreneurial circumspection and diplomacy from Tallis, but this did not prevent them both from being watched. Accusations of recusancy (non-attendance at Protestant Communion) were levelled against Byrd on several occasions from 1584, and he was fined but rescued from further punishment by his friends at court.

Was his adherence to the Roman Church, therefore, an ‘open secret’? In 1605 and 1607 he felt confident enough to publish the volumes of Gradualia (arguably Byrd’s magnum opus, anthologising his dazzlingly varied polyphonic settings of Propers for the Mass in every season) openly, with a temporary withdrawal after the Gunpowder Plot had inspired a resurgence of virulent anti-Catholic feeling. After Byrd’s death in 1623, from natural causes and surrounded by family, he left considerable worldly possessions including a farm and woodland at Stondon Massey, proof positive of his effective lifetime manipulation of patronage.

The Mass for Five Voices was the third and last of Byrd’s settings of the Ordinary of the Mass to be composed, and it is the most consistent in form and balance. Emotionally restrained in design, it nonetheless displays varied tints of darkness, despair, exultation and

supreme confidence, all tempered by Byrd’s devotional channelling of the numinous. While Byrd’s Masses adhere to the tenets of the Council of Trent in terms of the moderation of melisma and clarity of word-setting, they are utterly non-European in construction and could never be confused with works by Lassus or Palestrina. All three are freely composed rather than built on the European ‘parody’ format; moreover, in a miracle of concision, Byrd manages in settings of greater brevity to sustain imitative counterpoint much more extensively than even Palestrina achieves.

Byrd could never have heard his Gradualia or Mass-settings sung by a full choir in the liturgical solemnity of Mass in a great cathedral.

In his lifetime, his sacred music would mostly have been realised by small ensembles in clandestine settings. In the early years of James I, for example, Mass was celebrated in numerous wealthy households with music from the Gradualia: Appleton Hall in Norfolk was one, the home of Edward Paston. The forces involved might well be one voice to a part with a celebrant to sing the liturgical framework and some or all of the Propers. Whilst this knowledge may influence a consort performance such as that on this disc, we may speculate that the sound in Byrd’s own head, flowing out through his pen, would have been that of a full choir in a glorious ecclesiastical setting. He may have cherished a hope that England would return to Rome and

that his Masses would one day ring round her magnificent cathedrals: he was writing for a sublime, heavenly eternity, not merely for the restrictions of his uncertain, dangerous present.

Nowadays we can select from a lavish range of recorded performances, from grandiose to chamber, but size is, perhaps, not the most relevant issue. Performing any polyphonic Mass-setting without a sense of context, as though it were a symphony, is to rob it of layers of meaning. Neither the composer nor his original ‘audience’ would suppose that it might be experienced without a liturgical armature.

The listener does not require faith to appreciate that the sung prayers that surround the polyphony offer a musical water-biscuit, cleansing the palate between each rich course of sound. The present performance might best be described as ‘liturgically informed’: not intended as a strict reconstruction, but offering one possible speculation about the intimate soundscape of a secret, domestic Mass in Byrd’s day.

The five-voice mass may be the masterpiece in this programme, but it acquires greater lustre when encased in a setting of motets and keyboard works. Here are three by Tallis from the Cantiones sacrae of 1575: Salvator mundi, O sacrum convivium and O nata lux; and three Byrd favourites, Laetentur caeli, Gaudeamus omnes and Justorum animae – a selection which covers a similar range of

emotion to the Mass itself. The examples of keyboard works by both composers are framed in suitably old-school counterpoint.

Both composers also produced organ works in the avant-garde ‘virginal’ style but, while Byrd’s posthumous reputation is greatly enhanced by his many surviving secular keyboard works, there is frustratingly little extant liturgical keyboard music, especially when one considers the complaints made about his playing in Lincoln. In the case of both composers, much was improvised and never published. It is tantalising to imagine that Byrd’s unpreserved liturgical repertoire might have shared the brilliance and invention of his secular keyboard music.

The careers of Tallis and Byrd span the period in which organ music underwent a gradual secularisation, but their keyboard music evolved from a vocal tradition – a concept we have all but lost touch with today. Composers of this period had a training that was at first vocal and then extended to instrumental activity without losing sight of the former: the Tudor composer had vocal music in his veins.

Byrd almost certainly learned how to become a teacher from the example of his first master, Tallis, passing on those values. It has taken us several centuries to arrive at our current extreme specialisation and, in some ways, a lamentable dislocation from the vocal. Byrd’s pupil Thomas Morley, in his A plaine and easie

Texts and translations

Notes on the music introduction to practicall musicke (London, 1597/8), exhorted singers, regarding the essential value of well-disciplined, technically sound singing and his fears about its decline:

2

… they ought to study how to vowel and sing clean, expressing their words with devotion and passion whereby to draw the hearer, as it were, in chains of gold by the ears to the consideration of holy things.

© 2015 Rebecca Tavener

O nata lux O nata lux de lumine, Jesu redemptor saeculi, dignare clemens supplicum laudes precesque sumere.

O light born of light, Jesus, redeemer of the world, mercifully deign to accept the praise and prayers of those who entreat you.

Qui carne quondam contegi dignatus es pro perditis, nos membra confer effici tui beati corporis.

You who once deigned to clothe yourself in flesh for lost humanity, grant that we may become members of your blessed body.

Hymn at Lauds on the Feast of the Transfiguration [vv. 1 & 2]

3

Laetentur caeli Laetentur caeli et exsultet terra.

Jubilate montes laudem: quia Dominus noster veniet, et pauperum suorum miserebitur.

Orietur in diebus tuis iustitia, et abundantia pacis.

Et pauperum suorum miserebitur.

Let the heavens rejoice and the earth exult.

Rejoice with praise, you hills, for our Lord shall come, and he shall have mercy on the poor that are his.

Justice shall arise in your time, and an abundance of peace.

And he shall have mercy on the poor that are his.

Processional respond for Advent in the Use of Sarum

4

Salvator mundi Salvator mundi, salva nos, qui per crucem et sanguinem redemisti nos, auxiliare nobis te deprecamur Deus noster.

Antiphon at Matins on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross

Saviour of the world, save us; you who redeemed us through your cross and blood, help us, we beseech you, our God.

Texts and translations Oremus. Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui immaculatam virginem Mariam, Filii tui genitricem, corpore et anima ad caelestem gloriam assumpsisti; concede quaesumus: ut, ad superna semper intenti, ipsius gloriae mereamur esse consortes. Per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum Filium tuum, qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti Deus per omnia saecula saeculorum. Amen.

Mass for Five Voices 7

Kyrie eleison.

Christe eleison.

Kyrie eleison.

8

Gloria in excelsis Deo, Glory to God in the highest, et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis. and on earth peace to men of good will.

Laudamus te. Benedicimus te.

We praise you. We bless you.

Adoramus te. Glorificamus te.

We worship you. We glorify you.

Gratias agimus tibi propter magnam We give you thanks for gloriam tuam. your great glory.

Domine Deus, Rex caelestis, Lord God, heavenly King, Deus Pater omnipotens.

God the Father Almighty.

Domine Fili unigenite, Jesu Christe; Lord, the only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ; Domine Deus, Agnus Dei, Filius Patris.

Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father, Qui tollis peccata mundi, who takes away the sins of the world, miserere nobis. have mercy upon us.

Qui tollis peccata mundi, Who takes away the sins of the world, suscipe deprecationem nostram. receive our prayer.

Qui sedes ad dexteram Patris, Who sits at the right hand of the Father, miserere nobis. have mercy upon us.

Quoniam tu solus Sanctus, tu solus Dominus, For only you are Holy, only you are Lord, tu solus Altissimus, Jesu Christe. only you are Most High, Jesus Christ.

Cum Sancto Spiritu in gloria With the Holy Spirit in the glory of Dei Patris. Amen. God the Father. Amen.

9

Dominus vobiscum.

Et cum spiritu tuo.

Lord have mercy.

Christ have mercy.

Lord have mercy.

The Lord be with you.

And with your spirit.

Let us pray. Almighty, everlasting God, who took up the immaculate Virgin Mary, mother of your Son, in body and soul into heavenly glory, grant, we beseech you, that we, ever intent on heavenly things, may deserve to be partakers of the same glory. Through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son, who lives and reigns in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God for all ages, world without end. Amen.

Collect for the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

10

Credo in unum Deum, Patrem omnipotentem, factorem caeli et terrae, visibilium omnium et invisibilium. Et in unum Dominum Jesum Christum, filium Dei unigenitum, et ex Patre natum ante omnia saecula, Deum de Deo, lumen de lumine, Deum verum de Deo vero.

Genitum non factum, consubstantialem Patri; per quem omnia facta sunt. Qui propter nos homines et propter nostram salutem descendit de caelis. Et incarnatus est de Spiritu Sancto, ex Maria Virgine; et homo factus est. Crucifixus etiam pro nobis sub Pontio Pilato, passus et sepultus est. Et resurrexit tertia die secundum scripturas, et ascendit in caelum, sedet ad dexteram Patris, et iterum venturus est cum gloria iudicare vivos et mortuos, cuius regni non erit finis. Et in Spiritum Sanctum, Dominum et vivificantem, qui ex Patre Filioque procedit, qui cum Patre et Filio simul adoratur et

I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all ages. God of God, light of light, true God of true God; begotten, not made; consubstantial with the Father, by whom all things were made. Who for us men, and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made man. He was crucified also for us, suffered under Pontius Pilate, and was buried. On the third day He rose again according to the Scriptures, and ascended into heaven. He sits at the right hand of the Father, and shall come again with glory to judge the living and the dead. And His Kingdom shall have no end. I believe in the Holy Ghost, Lord and giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who together with the Father and

Texts and translations conglorificatur, qui locutus est per prophetas.

Et unam sanctam catholicam et apostolicam ecclesiam. Confiteor unum baptisma in remissionem peccatorum, et expecto resurrectionem mortuorum, et vitam venturi saeculi. Amen.

11

the Son is worshipped and glorified, who spoke through the prophets. I believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. I confess one baptism for the remission of sins. And I await the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.

… per omnia saecula saeculorum. Amen.

… world without end. Amen.

Dominus vobiscum.

Et cum spiritu tuo.

Sursum corda.

Habemus ad Dominum.

Gratias agimus Domino Deo nostro.

Dignum et iustum est.

The Lord be with you.

And with your spirit.

Lift up your hearts.

We lift them up to the Lord.

We give thanks to the Lord our God. It is meet and right.

Vere dignum et iustum est, aequum et salutare, nos tibi semper et ubique gratias agere, Domine, sancte Pater, omnipotens aeterne Deus. Per Christum Dominum nostrum, per quem maiestatem tuam laudant angeli, adorant dominationes tremunt potestates, caeli caelorumque virtutes ac beata Seraphim socia exultatione concelebrant. Cum quibus et nostras voces ut admitti iubeas, deprecamur supplici confessione dicentes:

It is truly meet, right, just and for the sake of our salvation that we should always and everywhere give you thanks, O Lord, almighty Father, omnipotent and everlasting God. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom angels praise your majesty, dominations worship you and powers tremble before you, the heavens and the heavenly virtues and the blessed Seraphim celebrate together in united exultation. And that you may order it that our voices too may be admitted to be joined with theirs we beseech you, saying in humble confession:

12

Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus.

Dominus Deus Sabaoth: Pleni sunt caeli et terra gloria tua.

Hosanna in excelsis.

Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Sabaoth.

Heaven and earth are full of your glory.

Hosanna in the highest.

13

Benedictus qui venit Blessed is he that comes in nomine Domini: in the name of the Lord: Hosanna in excelsis.

Hosanna in the highest.

14

… per omnia saecula saeculorum. Amen.

… world without end. Amen.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum.

Et cum spiritu tuo.

The peace of the Lord be always with you.

And with your spirit.

15

Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, Lamb of God, who takes away the sins miserere nobis. of the world, have mercy upon us.

Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, Lamb of God, who takes away the sins miserere nobis. of the world, have mercy upon us.

Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, Lamb of God, who takes away the sins dona nobis pacem. of the world, grant us peace.

16

Dominus vobiscum.

Et cum spiritu tuo.

Ite missa est.

Deo gratias.

The Lord be with you.

And with your spirit.

Go forth from Mass.

Thanks be to God.

18

Texts and translations

Biographies

Gaudeamus omnes

The Dunedin Consort is a dynamic vocal ensemble that has rapidly established itself at the forefront of professional singing in the UK. Founded by conductor, singer and arranger Ben Parry and soprano Susan Hamilton, its aim is to provide the Scottish community with a vocal group of outstanding quality and an international touring ensemble giving worldclass performances.

Gaudeamus omnes in Domino, Let us all rejoice in the Lord, diem festum celebrantes celebrating a festival day sub honore beatae Mariae Virginis: in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary, de cuius solemnitate gaudent angeli, at whose solemnity the angels rejoice, et collaudant Filium Dei. and together praise the Son of God. Eructavit cor meum verbum bonum: My heart has uttered a good word: dico ego opera mea Regi.

I speak of my works to the King.

Gloria Patri et Filio et Spiritui Sancto: Glory be to the Father, and to the Son sicut erat in principio, et nunc et semper, and to the Holy Ghost, et in saecula saeculorum. Amen. as it was in the beginning, is now Gaudeamus omnes … and ever shall be,

world without end. Amen.

Let us all rejoice …

Introit at Mass of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

19

O sacrum convivium O sacrum convivium in quo Christus sumitur: recolitur memoria passionis eius, mens impletur gratia, et futurae gloriae nobis pignus datur.

O sacred feast, in which we feed on Christ, the memory of His passion is renewed, the mind is filled with grace, and a pledge of future glory given to us.

Antiphon at Second Vespers on the Feast of Corpus Christi

20

Justorum animae Justorum animae in manu Dei sunt, et non tanget illos tormentum mortis.

Visi sunt oculis insipientum mori; illi autem sunt in pace.

Offertory at the Feast of All Saints

The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and the torment of death shall not touch them.

In the sight of the unwise they seemed to die: but they are in peace.

The Dunedin Consort is based in Edinburgh and draws professional singers from all over the UK. With a wide variety of musical repertoire, the group numbers anything from three to sixteen singers. Since 1996 the group has performed concerts in the UK and abroad to critical acclaim. It has performed at festivals in Glasgow, Canada, Italy, Spain and France, as well as in engagements with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the BT Scottish Ensemble, Paragon Ensemble Scotland, Florilegium, La Serenissima, and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Frequently broadcast on BBC Radio 3, it appears regularly on BBC Scotland. Its own annual concert series in Scotland has included performances of Bach’s St Matthew Passion in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen. The group is programmed regularly at the Edinburgh International Festival.

The Consort has made a number of recordings in its own right, and features also on recordings of Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail and Idomeneo with Sir Charles Mackerras and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

Forthcoming projects with Delphian include a recording of The People’s Mass (DCD34018), commissioned by the Dunedin Consort and featuring the work of six contemporary Scottish composers.

Biographies John Kitchen is a Senior Lecturer in Music and University Organist in the University of Edinburgh. He also directs the Edinburgh University Singers, is Director of Music at Old Saint Paul’s Episcopal Church, and Edinburgh City Organist with duties at the Usher Hall.

He gives many solo recitals both in the UK and further afield, and is much in demand as a continuo player, accompanist, lecturer, writer and reviewer.

John has recorded extensively both for Delphian Records and for a number of other labels. Recent releases offer the complete organ music of William Russell – part of a major project funded by a grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council – and Handel overtures transcribed for harpsichord by the composer and others, performed on the 1755 Jacob Kirckman harpsichord from the Raymond Russell Collection in the Edinburgh University Collection of Historic Musical Instruments. The recording of a disc surveying nine instruments from the recently bequeathed Rodger Mirrey Collection at St Cecilia’s Hall is in progress.

Also available on Delphian Loquebantur: Music from the Baldwin Partbooks The Marian Consort, Rory McCleery director, Rose Consort of Viols DCD34160

John Baldwin was a lay clerk at St George’s Chapel, Windsor in 1575 and became a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal in 1598. The so-called ‘Baldwin partbooks’, held at Christ Church, Oxford, were his creation – a very personal collection, representing his individual tastes and interests from a wealth of English and Continental polyphony and consort music. As in their previous collaboration, an exploration of the similarly conceived partbooks of Robert Dow, the Marian Consort and Rose Consort of Viols have kept faith with Baldwin’s own intentions, bringing to light some of the rarer gems preserved by this great advocate and music-lover and providing the listener with ‘such sweete musicke: as dothe much delite yeelde’.

New in September 2015

Handel: The Triumph of Time and Truth Sophie Bevan, Mary Bevan, Tim Mead, Ed Lyon, William Berger, Ludus Baroque / Richard Neville-Towle DCD34135 (2 discs)

Ludus Baroque and five stellar soloists bring to life Handel’s rarely heard final oratorio, a remarkable Protestant re-casting of a work written fifty years earlier to a text by the young composer’s Roman patron Cardinal Pamphilj.

The result, neglected by centuries of scholarship on account of its hybrid origins, here proves an extraordinary feast of riches, and the ideal vehicle for Richard Neville-Towle’s carefully assembled cast of exceptional soloists, vigorous, intelligent chorus and an orchestra made up from some of the UK’s leading period instrumentalists. ‘finely shaped, unflamboyant conducting, gracious playing and some very fine singing. Sophie Bevan plays Beauty in what is arguably her finest recording to date; the final aria is breathtaking’ — The Guardian, June 2014

Also available on Delphian The People’s Mass Dunedin Consort

Instruments from the Russell Collection Vol II John Kitchen

DCD34018

DCD34039

The Dunedin Consort has adopted a fresh approach to the Latin Mass by commissioning a different composer to write each movement.

Six contemporary Scottish-based composers come together in this new setting whose most striking aspect is its remarkable homogeneity, given the varied backgrounds of the six composers. The blending of six-part a cappella voices together with solo songs, harp and an upper-voice choir for the plainsong sections contributes an added dimension of space to a spiritual work that achieves unity in diversity.

Edinburgh University’s Russell Collection is one of the world’s finest collections of early keyboard instruments. The second volume in John Kitchen’s ongoing project to bring its musical exhibits to life matches music by Handel, Purcell, the Scottish composer Robert Bremner and others including Mozart’s son Franz Xaver with a gloriously vigorous menagerie of spinets, virginals, chamber organs, clavichords and harpsichords.

‘The singing is excellent, as is the harp-playing of Helen Thomson’ — Choir & Organ, May/June 2005

Remember me my deir: Jacobean songs of love and loss Fires of Love DCD34129

Scottish troubadours Fires of Love follow in the footsteps of King James VI on a varied journey through song and instrumental music – deftly weaving their way through Scotland’s rich tapestry of historic manuscripts to unveil attractive unsophisticated melodies, often heavily imbued with the French style, before travelling south to London, where James and his musicians would have been taken aback by the highly active theatre scene. As the Scots courtier-musicians nimbly traded French influence for London’s ‘Englished’ Italian style, one wonders: did they regretfully look homewards? ‘Remember me, my deir …’ ‘gentle, intimate and beguiling … [Frances] Cooper’s soprano catches the ear like gilded thread against the woven instrumental textures’ — Gramophone, March 2014

‘a supreme achievement … Every one a gem, as are Kitchen’s stylishly bright performances’ — The Scotsman, March 2006

William Russell (1777–1813): Complete Organ Voluntaries The Bishop Organ of St James’ Church, Bermondsey John Kitchen DCD34062 (3 discs)

Published in 1804 and 1812 respectively, William Russell’s two books of organ voluntaries date from a fascinating and neglected period in English music. For this first complete recording John Kitchen has carefully selected a restored 1829 instrument whose period qualities equip it perfectly to bring Russell’s music alive once more. The lavish booklet contains detailed information regarding Russell’s original performance instructions and the registrations adopted by Kitchen. ‘immaculately presented and superbly played’ — Classic FM Magazine, April 2009

DCD34008