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heavenly harmonies | compline | live reviews | awards

Praise for Music for Compline

Debut recordings rarely come as impressive as this sequence of 16th-century English music for the evening service that concluded the daily monastic round of prayer. It suggests that Stile Antico have a future as bright as their pure and crystalline soprano sound, which is heard to special advantage in the pieces by John Sheppard, the most lavishly represented composer on the disc. His penchant for high, soaring treble lines combines with a personal approach to harmony and texture to create beautiful music with an ethereal quality, excellently exemplified in the Libera nos settings that open the programme.

Less stratospheric but equally rich and sonorous are Byrd's glowingly ecstatic Nunc dimittis and Tallis's seven-part Miserere nostri, which show off the precision of the group's ensemble singing and control of phrasing and dynamics. The latter quality, coupled with admirably clear enunciation, also enables them to give expressive performances of simpler pieces such as Byrd's hymn Christe qui lux es, where sudden fortes emphasise the fearful dangers of the night. (Daily Telegraph, March 2007)

The directorless young vocal group’s debut disc for Harmonia Mundi is an appealing collection of pieces by English composers written for the last office of the day during the turbulent years when Tudor monarchs oscillated between Protestantism and Catholicism. The predominant mood is serene and prayerful — which doesn’t necessarily mean simplicity. Rival canonic settings by Thomas Tallis and William Byrd of Miserere mihi Domine are mind-boggling examples of contrapuntal ingenuity, while Hugh Aston’s antiphon Gaude, virgo mater Christi ends the recital in an opulent swirl of late-medieval magnificence. Pieces by John Sheppard and Robert White testify to the strength in depth of the Tudors’ compositional talent. The singing is staggeringly beautiful, the balance meticulous. (Sunday Times, February 2007)

This is one of those alchemic discs with a total greater than the sum of its parts. Although the programme is not under-recorded, the group still manages to bring something new to each piece by leaving well alone, treating the music with reverence and allowing the polyphony to unfold naturally. The false relations in Sheppard’s In manus tuas III are a good example of allowing the music to speak for itself – a temptation that has got the better of many more established groups than this – but the highlight of this disc must be Tallis’s extraordinarily inventive seven-part dual canon Miserere nostri. This is as near-perfect a recording as you will find of this repertoire, and one that sounds as fresh as the Tallis Scholars did 25 years ago. (Choir and Organ, April 2007)

Absolutely ravishing performances by Stile Antico, among the most promising vocal groups to come along in the last 20 years. These well-matched and perfectly tuned young voices are a joy to hear, and their singing style conveys a level of excitement in the rhythms and vibrancy in the harmonies that's unusual to hear and rare to experience on a recording...

These singers... show an impressive ensemble technique and sensitivity, whether to ensuring textural clarity in the dense, slow-moving Miserere of Tallis or attending to the details of phrasing and unison singing in the brief chant passages. The program selection and ordering also shows considerable thought and good musical sense. The sound is exemplary - warm yet vibrant, focused, and presented from an ideal listening perspective. This is an extraordinary recording: in its debut on Harmonia Mundi Stile Antico has given choral music lovers everywhere a reason to celebrate what looks like the beginning of another beautiful relationship! (Classics Today. Full review here)

This is a magnificent first recording. (Early Music Review, February 2007)

The singing is simply extraordinary. Mindful of the intimate and reflective nature of the rite, Stile Antico allows phrases to unfold in an unhurried manner, and when soft, as in the opening salve nos of Sheppard’s “Libera nos” or the beginning of Tallis’s “Miserere nostri” the effect is exquisite and sublime. The soft is never an “undersung” volume, but full of presence. Heard here, this expressive dynamic begins to do for the sound what candlelight does for the sight, enveloping things with an aura of intimacy. And this is very compelling. This is surely one of the best early music recordings of the year. It will certainly have pride of place on many a shelf. (Opera Today, September 2007. Full review here)

The singers’ translucent, soft, glowing voices provide for a luscious sound, and the disc’s imaginative programming – a mixture of 16th-century English plainsong and polyphony within an evening service – heightens the smooth pleasures of the recording... (BBC Music Magazine, May 2007)

They may have chosen to call themselves Stile Antico, but these thirteen singers strike a real blow for youth amongst the venerable English tradition of a cappella vocal groups... Their sonority and musical intentions only seem the more subtle and spontaneous in the absence of the slightly driven quality sometimes induced by a conductor. With a magnificent tonal palette and bold choices of dynamics, the interpretation is remarkably cohesive and inventive... At the close of this rich office, the spell is such that we are convinced, in the words of Baudelaire, the twilight poet par excellence, that 'the world falls asleep in a warm light.' (Diapason, February 2007)

This is a richly varied and moving program... The quality of the performances by Stile Antico is as good as any I have ever heard in this repertoire. Whether it’s the taut counterpoint of Tallis’s In pace in idipsum, the surprising dissonances and daring harmonies in works by White and Aston, or sonorous plainchant, the ensemble sings with youthful vigor, clarity, balance and beauty. This is a major debut by an exciting ensemble of talented young singers who have immediately staked a claim at the very top the heap. (Early Music America, Summer 2007)

There's no shortage of groups, especially English ones, singing Renaissance polyphony, and such ensembles as the Tallis Scholars and the Sixteen have set the bar awfully high. But Stile Antico easily meets the standard... The members of Stile Antico demonstrate the immaculate ensemble work and balance of better-known groups -- remarkably, since they sing without a conductor -- but their sound is richer and more deeply hued. The final work on the CD -- an antiphon by the much-neglected English composer Hugh Aston -- is astonishing for its quiet spiritual intensity. (Boston Globe, March 2007)

These polyphonic settings, true "songs of the night", glow with a mystical radiance, whose most poetic nuances are captured by the young vocal ensemble Stile Antico. A young ensemble, of young singers – but from the first notes of the Libera nos by Sheppard which opens the disc, one is struck by the maturity and acute sensitivity of this interpretation, moving in its slow and majestic tempi. And how could one resist the poignant intensity of the In manus tuas by Tallis and Sheppard, or the Nunc dimittis by Byrd? The journey ends with a brighter, more monumental work from the previous generation, the Marian antiphon Gaude Virgo by Hugh Aston. Here, undeterred by the extraordinary complexities of the gathering melismas, Stile Antico demonstrate a joy in their singing which is literally euphoric. (Monde de la Musique, February 2007)

This gorgeous release by the young English unaccompanied vocal group Stile Antico would be worth your time and money simply for the quiet, perfectly intoned singing on display here. But the album accomplishes more than vocal virtuosity... The program is ideally structured to lead the listener from Sheppard (and his contemporary Hugh Aston) to Thomas Tallis and his musical heir, William Byrd... Sheppard is generously represented, and this disc is strongly recommended to anyone who has been intrigued with his music but has felt overwhelmed by an entire disc's worth of it - it seems to give the modern listener little to hang on to, but when placed in contrast with the more ordered works of Tallis and Byrd it seems luxuriant. The program is tied together as well by the Compline themes, which lend the entire album a meditative cast that will appeal to casual listeners as strongly as it will to closely attentive ones. This is superb choral singing that stands out from the crowd of recordings of unaccompanied English music of the sixteenth century. (All Music Guide. Full review here)

This is a beautiful disc, rendered with dignity, purity, and understanding. (New York Sun, February 2007)

Stile Antico... sings with marvellous understanding and sympathy, and manifests a tonal quality that sounds a lot like the Tallis Scholars, but with more emotional heart... Their blend and tonal luster is near perfection, and this album, with its glorious cathedral-like surround sound is a perfect foundation recording for music of the pre-reformation English church. (Audiophile Audition. Full review here)

The ensemble Stile Antico, a newcomer to the European choral scene, sings with such clarity and warmth of tone that fans of choral music would do well to take note... Their detailed and expressive take of Byrd’s Christe, qui lux es et dies is one of many sublime highlights... delivered with voices that are finely honed and bright, and glowing, golden tone. (Sacramento Bee, March 2007)

Shapely and stylish performances... an impressive sound, near perfect in precision and intonation... highly impressive. (American Record Guide, May 2007)

The singing is amazing. Tone quality is consistent. Tuning is flawless... Each line swells effortlessly to its peak and subsides as another line begins its journey. One has a sense that the ensemble itself is inhaling and exhaling, always in a measured, controlled fashion, producing nothing jagged. But within that control, Stile Antico creates an intensity of forward musical motion that is breath-taking... a virtual manual on how to sing music from this era. (Choral Journal, May 2007)

On its first recording for Harmonia Mundi, the young British vocal ensemble Stile Antico reaches the very highest level. Their performance achieves a perfect balance between polyphonic clarity and sense of colour. Breathing as one, the members of Stile Antico give an ideal luminosity to their singing... Indispensable. (Opus Haute Définition. Full review here)

This is superb singing that's also blessed - I mean that literally - with profound delicacy and reverence. You sense the group is singing for its own spiritual good, with a combination of relaxed, introspective tempos and inner conviction... (Philadelphia Inquirer, March 2007)

The unaccompanied voices of Stile Antico create an air of devotional spaciousness in pieces composed for evening worship by Thomas Tallis, William Byrd, Robert White, Hugh Aston and John Sheppard. The last is the happy discovery. In the two versions of the Libera nos that open the program, the gentle, swelling responsory In pace in idipsum and three meditative settings of In manus tuas, Sheppard's skill at closely knitted yet transparent polyphony is apparent. There are attractive works by Byrd and Tallis, as well as several anonymous plainchants... The ensemble unfolds these choral textures with sustained conviction. (San Francisco Chronicle, February 2007)