The Great Service

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WILLIAM BYRD
The Great Service
The Cardinall's Musick, Andrew Carwood

[ Hyperion / CD ]

Release Date: Monday 15 October 2012

This item is currently out of stock. It may take 6 or more weeks to obtain from when you place your order as this is a specialist product.

'This new recording is something special. Whether it's because of the sheer experience of having sung so much of Byrd's music as to have assimilated his musical language utterly, or whether it's simply the raw musicianship and cultivated intelligence of the performers, there's a clarity and intensity in each verse that is spine-tingling." (International Record Review)

'This new recording is something special. Whether it's because of the sheer experience of having sung so much of Byrd's music as to have assimilated his musical language utterly, or whether it's simply the raw musicianship and cultivated intelligence of the performers, there's a clarity and intensity in each verse that is spine-tingling … Here, as elsewhere, the latent energy of the words as made manifest in Byrd's setting is realized with the kind of skill and conviction that moves rather than simply amazes. Which is, I guess, the point of religious music' (International Record Review)

'The 10 voices of the Cardinall's Musick launch into the opening of Byrd's The Great Service - "O come, let us sing unto the Lord" - with a soaring joyfulness and clarity that sustains throughout this large-scale and elaborate work. Andrew Carwood and his group have won countless accolades for their series of Byrd's Latin sacred music. In this Anglican work, they achieve the same outstanding level of musicianship. The (female) sopranos have strength and purity at the top but an effective lightness, too, closer to the sound of boy trebles. The full ensemble tone is bold and energetic' (The Observer)

'The singing is neat, clear and fluid, with beautifully elastic phrasing from the two tenors. The Nunc Dimittis provides the sweetest moments in the Great Service itself' (BBC Music Magazine)

Tracks:

The Great Service
Praise our Lord, all ye Gentiles
Unto the hills mine eyes I lift
Make ye joy to God all the earth
Turn our captivity, O Lord
This day Christ was born 'A Carroll for Christmas Day'