Cardinall's Musick

The Cardinall's Musick is one of the jewels in the crown of the UK music scene. Concentrating on the music of the 16th and 17th centuries, they have, through their concerts and recordings, established an enviable reputation. A group of deeply committed performers, they are recognised as one of the most expressive, entertaining and professional ensembles in the world, with the ability to make the sounds of the past live in the present.

Since its foundation in 1989, The Cardinall's Musick has been a highly successful and innovative ensemble. Taking its name from the 16th century English cardinal, Thomas Wolsey, the group’s reputation grew through its extensive study of music from the English Renaissance. Originally an a capella vocal group, The Cardinall's Musick now has its own period instrumental ensemble and embraces a wide range of styles and periods: from a complete reconstruction of a Tudor mass in Hampton Court to the world premieres of commissions from composers Michael Finnissy and Simon Whalley. Their repertoire has grown to include music from many different countries and they are well known for their thoughtful, themed programmes designed to stimulate and enlighten, to broaden horizons but also to look at standard repertoire with a fresh eye.

One of the strengths of the group lies in the combination of solid academic research with the ability of its singers to perform as soloists who are also part of a vocal team, “preserving their vocal personalities rather than striving for a mellifluous blend … resulting in a vibrant texture of timbres” (The Daily Telegraph). Coupled with this goes a sincere love of the music and the desire to give deeply committed live performances: “the voices of Andrew Carwood and his eight cohorts could probably start a blaze in the Antarctic!” (The Times). The group has performed at the most prestigious festivals in the UK, including Spitalfields, Bath, Chester, Aldeburgh, the South Bank and the Proms and throughout Europe. Their 2003 celebration of the life of Queen Elizabeth I has been singled out for particular praise.

The Cardinall’s Musick have produced a number of CDs on the Gaudeamus label for Sanctuary Classics to great critical acclaim, including music by the Englishmen Nicholas Ludford, William Cornysh and Robert Fayrfax and by Lassus, Palestrina, Victoria. They are currently engaged in a remarkable project to record the works of one of England’s greatest composers, William Byrd. This groundbreaking series has drawn plaudits from around the world for the standard of performance, its integrity and its academic research. Their first disc of music by Fayrfax won a Gramophone Award for Early Music: and their discs of Victoria and the Three Masses by William Byrd were runners-up in the same category in 2000 and 2001. The Cardinall's Musick have also received a French Diapason d’Or, a German Schallplatten Kritik Preis and the Schallplatten Echo Award. Director Andrew Carwood

Discography

Tallis - Gaude Gloriosa

Jesu Salvator Saeculi Gaude Gloriosa Sermone Blando Angelus Magnificat Nunc Dimittis Derelinquat Impius Loquebantur Variis Linguis Suscipe Quaeso Domine O Nata Lux

This new Hyperion recording celebrates the 500th anniversary of the birth of England’s first superstar composer, Thomas Tallis, and welcomes the signing to the label of The Cardinall’s Musick and Andrew Carwood. Over the group’s fifteen-year history, The Cardinall’s Musick has built an enviable reputation for excellence. Some twenty recordings on the ASV Gaudeamus label have seen accolades from around the world, including a Gramophone Award and a Diapason d’Or, while in the concert hall and workshop the group has consistently displayed innovation and a freshness of approach, whether tackling contemporary works (many of them commissions) or sharing the fruits of years of research into the music of the English Renaissance. On their debut recording for Hyperion, The Cardinall’s Musick turns to the period of its namesake, Cardinal Wolsey, and specifi cally to the music of Thomas Tallis. Gaude gloriosa takes center stage. One of a series of monumental and extended motets (each lasting getting on for twenty minutes), this should be regarded as the summation of the genre - whereas Tallis’s earlier attempts such as Salve intemerata or Ave Dei Patris fi lia can seem to ramble somewhat, in Gaude gloriosa we find a sure-footed and eloquent response to an unusual text in honor of the Virgin Mary, and a work which takes singer and listener alike into a world of unremitting fervor. Other works on this recording include the famous Loquebantur variis linguis and O nata lux settings, the five-voice Latin Magnificat and Nunc dimittis. Of special note is the Suscipe quaeso Domine - where a particularly gloomy text (thought to have been written to mark England’s reconciliation with Rome on the accession of Mary Tudor) elicits from Tallis some truly extraordinary and rhetorical effects including harmonic shifts which are every bit as shocking today as they must have been at the work’s first performance in 1554. Future plans for The Cardinall’s Musick on Hyperion include the completion of their on-going series encompassing the complete Latin church music of William Byrd.

The Byrd Edition Vol 1

Domine Quis Habitabit Omni Tempore Benedic Deum Christe Redemptor Omnium Sermone Blando Miserere Ne Perdas cum Impiis De Lamentatione Jeremiae Prophetae Rorate Caeli Tollite Portas / Ave Maria Ecce Virgo Alma Redemptoris Mater Christe qui lux es (a5) Christe qui lux es (a4) Sanctus Audivi Vocem de Caelo Vide Dominum Quoniam Tribulor Peccavi Super Numerum

The Byrd Edition is a long-term project that is one of the most comprehensive ever undertaken in the early music field: some 20 CDs that will cover the complete works of William Byrd. The music will be freshly edited and sources re-examined by David Skinner. The Cardinall's Musick under Andrew Carwood has gained a formidable reputation in bringing the neglected masterworks of the English Renaissance to a wider public. These have included the festal Masses of Ludford and the complete works of Fayrfax, the excellence of which was recognized by the winning of a prestigious Gramophone Award. The whole project is divided between the Latin Church Music, the Secular Songs and Consort Music, and the English Church Music. Volume 1 is the first of the Latin Church Music discs, which provides a chronological survey of Byrd's surviving Latin motets to the Cantiones Sacrae of 1591, interspersed with a liturgical survey of the Gradualia. Thus this first CD includes the Gradualia propers for Lady Mass in Advent, the Lamentations, the exquisite penitential motet Peccavi super numerum and the great 9-part psalm setting for men's voices Domine quis habitabit.

6501 CD $15.98

Fairfax Vol 4

Salve Regina/ Missa o Bone Ihesu Gloria Credo Sanctus/ Benedictus Agnus Dei Most cDere of Colour I Love, Loved, and Loved Wolde I Be Benedicite! What Dreamyd i? Magnificat o Bone Ihesu

Continuing the first-ever CD edition of the music of Fayrfax, of which the first release was the GRAMOPHONE AWARD WINNER 1995. This disc presents a superb, mature example of the 'cyclic' mass form Fayrfax pioneered and mastered within his Festal masses. The Missa O bone Ihesu is an exceptionally beautiful setting, paired with an equally fine Magnificat. There are no other recordings available of either piece, nor of the earlier Salve Regina setting from the Eton Choirbook. Another side of Fayrfax's legacy is represented by three secular songs from The Fayrfax Manuscript in the British Library, including his most popular song Most Clere of Colour.

6502 CD $15.98

Byrd Vol 2: Propers For Christmas Day

Ave regina caelorum O salutaris hostia Alleluya. Confitemini Domino In exitu Israel Propers for the Nativity: Introit Gradual Alleluya Offertory Communion Hodie Christus natus est O admirabile commertium O Magnum Mysterium Decantabat populus Alleluya. Laudate pueri Dominum Deus is adjutorium Ad Dominum cum tribularer

Since 1989 The Cardinall¹s Musick, directed by Andrew Carwood, has gained a reputation in bringing neglected English Renaissance masterworks to a wider public, and they have recorded a number of CDs to critical acclaim. "Propers" is the work of William Byrd (1535 to 1623), early Latin Christmas sacred music. There are 15 movements here, with names like "Ave regina caelorum," "O saluteris hostia," "Alleluya, Confitemini Domino" and "O admirabile commertium." "Propers for the Nativity" is a series designed for a Christmas church service, with music for the Offertory, Communion, etc. These are powerful, calming, soaring chants that could be easily mistaken for the songs of angels, back in 1607 or 2003!

6788 CD $15.98

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