BaL 1.07.23 - The works of William Byrd

[Wolfram]

One left after I bought the other yesterday evening!

I have listened to these discs through twice now. Grace Davidson and Martha McLorian are a revelation. Absolutely mesmerising performances.

[Serial_Apologist]

This coming Sunday's Sunday Worship (R4 8am) has Rev Dr Jonathan Arnold reflecting on the composer's music and faith 400 years on; and the following feature on Radio 3 is also of interest:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001nh30

Just bumping this up as a reminder, in the light of the other current Byrd discussions on the Forum.

[Retune]

I have listened to these discs through twice now. Grace Davidson and Martha McLorian are a revelation. Absolutely mesmerising performances.

I would say 'small world' but it really is a tiny one now, with Foyles maybe the only place left in London that might stock something like this. I wasn't expecting to find it, but had a quick browse while waiting for a friend. Haven't listened to it yet, but the weekend is now here...

[Wolfram]

I think this one is likely to turn out to be an expensive BaL for me. I have the recordings by the Cardinall’s Musick of the three masses, but not much else. I was very taken with both Stile Antico and Gesualdo 6, and will add them to my collection when next in London - that’s if there’s any left on Foyles’ shelves by then…..

[Darloboy]

vinteuil, she did mention the Carwood Byrd edition and played an extract from Volume 12. But the only keyboard recordings mentioned were Egarr's One Byrde in Hande and Kit Armstrong's Byrd & Bull disc on modern piano. Hardly a comprehensive survey.

[Darloboy]

There have been a number of BALs on Byrd over the years, mainly concerning his masses. Let's hope this concentrates more on his keyboard and consort music and perhaps also on his shorter religious works.

Given that the masses crop up fairly regularly on BaL, it might have made sense to exclude them from this survey to allow more time for his other works.

I'm including previous recommendations for the masses here in case anyone's interested:

Tess Knighton (December 03): Carwood + Summerly as budget choice for the 4 & 5 part masses + Hill as "Cathedral Tradition" choice for the 5 part mass
Simon Heighes (June 13 - programme on 4 part mass only): Carwood + Hilliard Ens (ovpp) + King's Singers/Concordia (with viols) + Phantasm (instrumental version) + Christophers (with female voices) + Higginbottom (cathedral/men only)

Regrettably, the recording of the Nicholas Kenyon BaL on the masses from 1986 disappeared from YouTube before I could listen to it. BaL also covered the 4 & 5 voice masses in May 79 when Gordon Reynolds was the reviewer. I don't know what the recommendations were from either of these programmes although in those days I guess that Willcocks would have been high up the list.

[Darloboy]

"Sold Out" on the listed website! I have not checked Amazon, Presto or any other website but once again it is difficult to find the recommended recording.

The JPC web site suggests that it's going to be reissued in November.