DCD34008-CD

Byrd / Tallis: … in chains of gold …

The Gramophone Award-winning Dunedin Consort, praised by critics for its ‘clear-textured beauty and a thrilling intensity’, surveys the Roman Catholic music of William Byrd and Thomas Tallis on this recording, in which Byrd’s Mass for Five Voices is presented as a full service. The intimacy of one-voice-to-a-part performance in Tallis’s Salvator Mundi and restful evening motet O nata lux creates an atmosphere of quiet devotion not soon to be forgotten, while organ interludes from John Kitchen add to the atmosphere of the glowing church acoustic.

"The Dunedin Consort evoke the spirit of the age with some fine singing"

"The singers luxuriate in the glowing acoustics of Midlothian’s Crichton Collegiate Church, lending warmth to immaculate performances of Tallis’s restful evening motet, O nata lux, Byrd’s intricate five-part mass and much more, including breathy interludes from organist John Kitchen."

"The blend of voices is excellent and praise should go to engineer Paul Baxter who has really caught the voices. Neither should we forget John Kitchen on the organ who shows admirable restraint throughout and allows the voices to take centre stage."

CROSSRHYTHMS

"Highlight of the disc (along with the ravishing little organ hymns played by John Kitchen) is the seamless and soaring performance of Byrd’s five part Mass, unforced, flowing, immaculately poised, and delivered with a certainty of the faith that inspired it."

"All the works on this disc are gems of Late Renaissance composition and are beautifully recorded and sung by this young Scottish group"

"The Dunedin Consort are but five voices, but what a sound! This is an enchanting and entrancing disc of music by the two greats of the Tudor world. The centre piece of the CD is Byrd’s Mass a 5, with plainsong interspersed for collect, Sursum Corda, Pax Dominus and Ite missa est. The single pieces are also well complemented by organ pieces by the two men."

THE ORGAN

Release date: 24 August 2003
Catalogue No: DCD34008
Total playing time: 0:52:28

Recorded on 19-23 January 2003 at Crichton Collegiate Church, Midlothian
Producer: Ben Parry
Engineer: Paul Baxter
24-bit digital editing
24-bit digital mastering: Paul Baxter

Design: John Christ
Booklet editor: John Fallas
Cover image: Paul Baxter

Album Booklet

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