The Cardinall’s Musick, War and Peace
St John’s Smith Square, 19th November 2017
- William Byrd – Kyrie from Mass for five voices
- William Byrd – Ad Dominum cum tribularer
- Benjamin Britten – Advance Democracy
- James MacMillan – When you see the millions of the mouthless dead
- Orlando Gibbons – O Lord in thy wrath
- James MacMillan – A Child’s prayer
- William Byrd – Agnus Dei from Mass for five voices
- William Byrd – Kyrie from Mass for four voices
- Philippe de Monte – Super flumina Babylonis
- William Byrd – Quomodo cantabimus
- James MacMillan – Emitte lucem tuam
- Arvo Pärt – Da pacem
- James MacMillan – Christus vincit
- William Byrd – Agnus Dei from Mass for four voices
- William Byrd – Peccavi super numerum
Sitting in Thomas Archer’s fine Baroque masterpiece church, rapt audience, listening to one of the UK’s finest ensemble interpreters of C16 and C17 British vocal music, here singing a diverse set of texts from composers past and present framed by extracts from William Byrd’s finest works, the Masses for four and five voices. And all to remember the fallen of past conflicts.
The Britten piece is packed with drama and I see nothing wrong with the pungent warning against Fascism in the text. As ever with the James MacMillan’s work the directness and invention wins you over but I have to say A child’s prayer, written in memory of the victims of Dunblane, pulls you right up with its repeated dirge of “Welcome”. Even by Part’s standards Da pacem is sparse but still so powerful. The biggest surprise of this excellent evening however was the Philippe de Monte motet which apparently stuck a chord with the nominally recusant Byrd. And the concluding five part Byrd motet, Peccavi super mumerum, which was new to me, left me pinned to my seat.
Don’t go through your life without William Byrd. I should probably stop there. So I will.
At Home He Feels Like A Tourist 