As a member of Elizabeth I’s Chapel Royal, William Byrd held a ringside seat as the English Reformation played out. Stile Antico’s program marks the 400th anniversary of the composer’s death in 1623 with a survey mainly of his late music for the Latin liturgy, deeply personal pieces written in rural retirement that embody the unwavering faith of a devout Roman Catholic in a Protestant land. The conductorless (and flawless) vocal ensemble build their spellbinding program around Byrd’s Mass for Four Voices, a towering monument of the English Renaissance created for clandestine country-house services and first published as an anonymous pamphlet. They frame it with motets for the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the sublime votive antiphon Tribue Domine, a backward glance at England’s lost Catholic past.
- The Sixteen & Harry Christophers
- Peter Phillips & The Tallis Scholars
- The Sixteen, Harry Christophers & Fretwork
- Paul Hillier & Hilliard Ensemble
- Choir of Clare College, Cambridge, Graham Ross & Iestyn Davies
- The Marian Consort
- Alamire, Fretwork & David Skinner