William Byrd does not write music without commitment. As a Catholic composer at the Protestant court of Elizabeth I, he knows all too well what it means to be heard – or not. His music reflects this in the way voices organize themselves, in melodies that linger without being intrusive, and with a treatment of the text that leaves nothing to chance.
Five times during this festival, you can hear the vocal music of a man often dismissed as a ‘keyboard specialist’. It is English music performed by English ensembles, established figures or rising stars. The Marian Consort visits Byrd in the private atmosphere of a clandestine mass. Tenebrae Choir presents him twice: subdued and emotional, but also public and ceremonial. Audience favourite Stile Antico weaves aspects of Byrd’s life and work into a single story. And The Lyons Mouth, heard just last year at the Fabulous Fringe, plays the experimental card.
