“Writing this sort of stuff ought to have got William Byrd into a heck of a lot of trouble”; thus Charles Hazelwood introduces the documentary middle-section of this 3-hour long disc. Viewers are taken on a tour of the places where the Elizabethan composer (c.1540-1623) worked and lived while several authorities discuss the music and its background. Trouble should have come from Byrd’s writing for his own Roman Catholic faith - its practice was banned in England. Instead, he flourished under the patronage of the Queen, for whose Protestant – and “official” church he produced settings and anthems.
The Scholars give a performance of a number of these works in Tewkesbury Abbey. These specialists in the music of the age show how supremely well and with what variety the composer reflected emotions in his settings of words, how skilfully he interwove voices. The “catholic” sounds must be those that Byrd heard only in his head; any polished performance was impossible in his lifetime. Byrd’s Anglican settings for the Chapel Royal choir had official sanction– which is why he avoided a great deal of trouble.
Sopranos produce a noticeably different sound from that of the boy trebles of the Anglican tradition. The Scholars’ many qualities more than compensate. Visual presentation has its oddities – occasional restlessness and a tendency to over-bright back lighting. Catholic music is sung in a celestial blue ambience, Anglican in fiery red – reflecting perhaps the composer’s views on the ultimate destination of adherents of the two faiths!
This is must for students of the music of the period and a delight for singers and lovers of church music.
