Rating: 5/5
Review:
A fabulous reissue
This is another in the outstanding series of budget reissues of the Tallis Scholars' finest recordings of the last 30 years. It contains the two CDs of Byrd's music recorded in the mid 1980s - their wonderful recordings of the three Masses and of the Great Service. In addition, there are five magnificent motets including the sublime Infelix ego. It is a wonderful collection of music from one of England's very greatest composers, and it also provides a really fascinating insight into the religious upheavals of Tudor times.
Byrd remained a Catholic throughout his life, despite the colossal pressures on Catholics following the Reformation. The first part of this includes Byrd's three settings of the Mass in Latin for Five, Four and Three Voices for Catholic worship. These are sublime, touching works, perhaps written for secret worship. The contrast between these and the Anglican settings in English is very marked, although the Anglican settings are no less musically rewarding. They conform (largely) to the injunction by Cranmer that settings should be one note to a syllable so that the text should be clearly heard, and have a sparer and more declamatory feel. Peter Phillips's commentary on this aspect of the music is, as always, exceptionally penetrating and interesting.
The performances themselves are unsurpassed, in my view, and rivalled only by The Cardinall's Musick's magnificent disc of the Masses. Intonation, clarity of line, balance and blend are impeccable and the whole is, as we have come to expect from the Tallis Scholars, simply brilliant and exceptionally beautiful.
At this price for two CDs of superb performances of some of the greatest English music ever written you simply can't go wrong, and I recommend this set wholeheartedly.
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