Composer: William Byrd
Performer: Sophie Yates, Fretwork, I Fagiolini
Conductor: Robert Hollingworth
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Chandos
Catalogue: CHAN0578
Release: 1995
Size: 312 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
01. Attollite portas
02. Triumphant with pleasant melody
03. O Lord, how vain
04. All in a Garden Green
05. Domine secundum actum meum
06. Truth at the first
07. Who likes to love
08. Wilson’s wild
09. Da mihi auxilium
10. Farewell, false love
11. O mistress mine, I must
12. Miserere mihi, Domini
13. My mind to me a kingdom
14. La volta No. 1 in G major, “Lady Morley”
15. Ad Dominum cum tribularer
This disc adopts an imaginative approach to programming Byrd’s music by presenting works in different genres grouped together to demonstrate a single stage in his development. It includes Latin motets, keyboard dances and variations on popular songs of the day, and sacred and secular songs (and a dialogue) with viols. There’s so much here that wins our admiration: the dazzling contrapuntal elaboration of Attollite portas, the close-knit texture of Da mihiauxilium and the massive Ad Dominum cum tribularer; the exuberant variations on O mistressmine (neatly played by Sophie Yates) and Byrd’s melodic gift in the strophic O Lord, how vain.
The singers’ adoption of period pronunciation – for example, ‘rejoice’ emerges as ‘rejwace’ – affects the tuning and the musical sound, it’s claimed here, but without rather clearer enunciation the point remains not proven. Probably more upsetting to many will be the Anglicised pronunciation of Latin.
The viol consort gives stylish support and is well balanced, the Fagiolini sopranos occasionally ‘catch the mike’ on high notes (eg in the passionate pleas of Miserere mihi, Domine), and the recorded level of the virginals might have been a little higher without falsifying its tone. But these are minor criticisms of a most rewarding disc.