Recordings of William Byrd's music tend to focus on a group of common pieces and combined with music by other composers, but for the listener seriously bitten by the Byrd bug, there's a lot to be said for the approach taken here by the combined forces of the vocal chamber group Alamire and the instrumentalists of Fretwork. They present, in its entirety, a 1588 publication by Byrd entitled Psalms, sonets & songs of sadnes and pietie . The group alters the order of the pieces and the forces of some of the songs, but this is ...
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Recordings of William Byrd's music tend to focus on a group of common pieces and combined with music by other composers, but for the listener seriously bitten by the Byrd bug, there's a lot to be said for the approach taken here by the combined forces of the vocal chamber group Alamire and the instrumentalists of Fretwork. They present, in its entirety, a 1588 publication by Byrd entitled Psalms, sonets & songs of sadnes and pietie . The group alters the order of the pieces and the forces of some of the songs, but this is not a problem; Byrd meant the collection as a repository, not as something to be performed straight through. The recording contains a number of pieces that apparently have never been recorded before and may qualify as neglected masterworks, notably As I beheld I saw a herdman wild among the "sonets." The performances are gorgeous, with the singers catching the involved texts perfectly in pieces like the marvelous My mind to me a Kingdom is. The biggest reason to approach Byrd...
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