The Phoenix Rising
$35.00
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WILLIAM BYRD / ORLANDO GIBBONS / THOMAS MORLEY / etc
The Phoenix Rising
Stile Antico
[ Harmonia Mundi SACD / Hybrid SACD ]
Release Date: Monday 29 July 2013
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.
Amongst the many endeavours funded by the Carnegie Trust marking its centenary in 2013), was the publication and editing of 'Tudor Church Music' in ten large folio volumes of music, with 50 performing pieces published individually. This had a considerable impact on the revival of this important music: for the first time a significant body of the greatest Tudor compositions became accessible to scholars, performers and listeners having languished in cathedrals, museums and colleges. It also inspired a further generation of English composers after its resurrection including Howells, Britten and Vaughan Williams.
Stile Antico presents a varied selection of the finest pieces from TCM in a programme centred around William Byrd's masterful five-part mass.
Stile Antico is an elite ensemble of young British singers, working without a conductor, each contributing artistically to the musical result. They are now established as the crack ensemble to beat, having enjoyed huge success, via their SACD recordings for harmonia mundi USA. Awards include the 2009 Gramophone Award for Early Music [Song of Songs] which also reached the top of the US Classical Chart. Their performances have repeatedly been praised for their vitality, commitment and imaginative response to text.
Highlights of Stile Antico's 2012-13 season include a series of concerts as co-curators of the Wigmore Hall's William Byrd: Sacred Music festival, and this new recording celebrating the centenary of the Carnegie UK Trust, publisher of the pioneering Tudor Church Music edition.
GRAMOPHONE MAGAZINE AWARD NOMINATION 2014
"exemplary tuning and discipline. The more elaborate and spacious the music, the warmer the interpretation...only Byrd's Ave Verum sounds a bit bloodless." The Times, 20th July 2013 ****
"Stile Antico honour the endeavour with their customary clean lines, pure tone and precise articulation. If all that sounds a bit efficient, I'm struggling to say only that it is music making at the highest level." The Observer, 11th August 2013
"such is the assurance, unanimity, flow and architectural grasp of their performances that one would never know they are not under the guiding hand of a conductor. Clearly this is all the result of scrupulous preparation...The singing itself is well-nigh flawless and the sound this group makes is a constant source of pleasure." MusicWeb International, 4th September 2013
"The expertise of the Stile Antico group in this repertory is not in doubt and, as always, these singers give us splendid performances. Gibbon's O Clap Your Hand, for example, has a sure-footed exuberance...the overall effect is extremely professional and pleasing." BBC Music Magazine, October 2013 ****
"That the performances on this disc are given with the customary Stile Antico level of excellence goes without saying; what pleases most is the commitment and passion with which the ensemble sings [these] works... reminding us of the striking beauty of this repertoire." Early Music Today, Autumn 2013
"Its collective (conductorless) approach pays particular dividends in this repertoire where the music depends on an instinctive reaction from the individual singers...Stile Antico presents it with a glorious and compelling freshness...we have a release which in its own way is quite as wonderful as the original Carnegie-funded editions." International Record Review, Recording of the Month, September 2013
"There's a forthright quality to the voices of Stile Antico, and especially its sopranos, that suits this English repertoire, balancing beauty with an intensity that reminds us that this is the music of protest and oppression as well as faith." Gramophone Magazine, September 2013
Tracks:
Byrd:
Ave verum Corpus
Mass for five voices
Gibbons, O:
O clap your hands
Almighty and everlasting God
Morley:
Nolo mortem peccatoris
Tallis:
Salvator mundi, salva nos 1 - antiphonn for five voices
Taverner:
O splendor gloriae
White, Robert:
Portio mea
Christe qui lux es et dies IV
