Composer: William Byrd
Performer: The Cardinall’s Musick
Conductor: Andrew Carwood
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Hyperion
Catalogue: CDA67568
Release: 2006
Size: 314 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
01. Quis est homo? a 5 (Cantiones Sacrae, 1591)
02. Tribulatio proxima est a 5 (Cantiones Sacrae, 1591)
03. Apparebit in finem a 5 (Cantiones Sacrae, 1591)
04. Salve sancta parens a 5, T. 61 (Gradualia, 1605)
05. Alleluia, Ave Maria … Virga Jesse a 5, T. 75 (Gradualia, 1605)
06. Beata es, Virgo Maria a 5, T. 65 (Gradualia, 1605)
07. Beata viscera a 5, T. 66 (Gradualia, 1605)
08. Regina caeli a 3, T. 112 (Gradualia, 1605)
09. Salve regina a 5 (Cantiones Sacrae, 1591)
10. Fac cum servo tuo a 5 (Cantiones Sacrae, 1591)
11. Ecce quam bonum a 4, T. 96 (Gradualia, 1605)
12. In manus tuas, Domine a 4, T. 102 (Gradualia, 1605)
13. Unam petii a Domino a 5, T. 82 (Gradualia, 1605)
14. Visita quaesumus, Domine a 4, T. 98 (Gradualia, 1605)
15. Domine, exaudi orationem meam, inclina a 5 (Cantiones Sacrae, 1591)
16. Laudibus in sanctis a
This tenth volume in the series is the first to be released on the Hyperion label and the first to feature music from Byrd’s consummate collection of 1591. The first seven motets are featured on this disc including the scintillating setting of Psalm 150 (Laudibus in sanctis) as well as more meditative motets such as Quis est homo and the exquisitely devotional Salve regina.
From the Gradualia are the Propers for Lady Mass in Eastertide and some more general motets – two psalm settings and two motets which take their inspiration from Compline – which create one of the most varied and satisfying discs in the series.
This disc is part of an ongoing complete recording of Byrd’s vocal music, unbroken despite a move from ASV/Sanctuary to the Hyperion label. The approach of the Cardinall’s Musick, under director Andrew Carwood, is clear and focused, with one singer per part (rotating among the 17 singers in the choir) on each of these Latin motets and Mass propers. That approach works especially well in Byrd’s small-scale Catholic music, to which this disc is devoted. This was music made on the sly, by English Catholics living dangerously in a Protestant-dominated society, and Carwood captures various aspects of the musical decisions Byrd made in this situation. One is simply the sober reserve of the music, which was recorded in a castle chapel actually used by English recusants or worshipers who refused to convert to the Church of England. Another, more often lost in full-scale choral performances of Byrd, is the focus on texts of trial and persecution (“Tribulation is near, and there is no help at hand,” track 2), emphasized in word-painting that sometimes seems akin to the Elizabethan madrigals that were being composed around this time by Byrd and others. The small vocal groups here bring out Byrd’s intense reactions to the texts without giving them a heated quality that would have been alien to the composer’s exquisite craft. A lovely, intimate set of mostly uncommon Byrd pieces.