Praise for Heavenly Harmonies
Stile Antico are one of the brightest new stars in the firmament of Renaissance vocal ensembles. Their clear, fresh tone, purposeful rhythmic energy, and minutely sensitive response to the words are displayed to perfection in this imaginatively chosen programme, which juxtaposes the rich (and often darkly penitential) complexities of Byrd's Latin Catholic polyphony with the simple yet expressive directness of Tallis's Protestant psalm tunes.
The urgency and rising desperation of the sinner's pleas in motets such as Ne irascaris and Exsurge Domine have a heartfelt intensity and sense of commitment that make these moving performances very special indeed. (Elizabeth Roche, Daily Telegraph, 16.2.08)
This new album from the early-music ensemble Stile Antico is a superb blend
of Tallis's austere psalm-settings and Byrd's harmonically more opulent Latin
motets, all designed to be performed by the faithful in the privacy of their
homes, rather than publicly in churches. What these young British singers do
with them is fresh, unmannered and captivatingly beautiful. (Michael Church,
The Independent, five stars, Classical Album of the Week, 22.3.08)
In its second disc, the Renaissance vocal group Stile Antico further establishes a newer, higher standard for
singing this repertoire - both with quality of sound and understanding of the music.
The qualities go hand in hand, particularly in these English Renaissance motets by William Byrd that
achieve an extraordinarily tight vocal blend, a full-bodied sonority not always heard in English ensembles,
and also a clarity in the individual vocal strands, enabled by keen but subtle attention to the music's
rhythmic profile and how it functions in the greater whole.
I can take or leave the format, which alternates simple, English-language Protestant hymns by Thomas Tallis with
complex, Latin-language Catholic motets by Byrd. But with music-making at this level, who's to argue? (David Patrick Stearns,
Philadelphia Inquirer, 16.3.08)
Three years ago these enterprising singers were prizewinners in the Early
Music Network International Young Artists Competition. From their latest
recording, it is easy to see why. Stile Antico’s disc displays an
ingeniously programmed alternation of exquisitely simple psalm settings by
Tallis alongside some of the most brilliantly and richly polyphonic works by
Byrd.
The most striking feature of these performances is how wonderfully varied they are. In some pieces – Byrd’s Vigilate for example, with its imitation of a cock crowing in the middle of the night – the presentational style almost enters the realm of musical theatre, while in Tallis’ God Grant with Grace the utterly still and simple display of the music is transporting. The long unfolding of Byrd’s Infelix ego (16 minutes) has caused more experienced groups to founder, but here the shaping could not be more alert and convincing... in their overall sense of form and local nuance this group has something that so many other ensembles noticeably lack. (Anthony Pryer, BBC Music Magazine, March 2008)
...the performances, given without a conductor, are splendid - pure, solid, at times astonishingly full for a group that runs to barely more than a dozen voices.
This is a spellbinding disc. (Michael Dervan, Irish Times, five stars, 7.3.08)
The idea of interleaving William Byrd’s elaborate polyphonic motets for undercover Roman Catholic consumption during the last two decades
of Elizabeth I’s reign with his mentor Thomas Tallis’s “official” Protestant Psalm Tunes for Archbishop Parker’s Psalter might seem perverse on paper,
but it works brilliantly. The austerity of Tallis’s settings of Parker’s English versifications of the Psalm contrasts starkly with the
intricate textures and deeply expressed torment of such Byrd masterpieces as Ne Irascaris Domine (in which desolate Jerusalem
and Sion reduced to a wilderness symbolise the fate of Catholics during the intensification of Elizabethan persecution after the
Babington plot and the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots) and Infelix ego (Savonarola’s plea for divine guidance and succour as he
awaited his execution as a heretic in 1498). The young singers of Stile Antico, in their second disc of Tudor music, are magnificent...
The jubilant strain of Laudibus in sanctis (the only joyful music on the disc) disarms criticism: glorious music, gloriously sung. (Hugh Canning, Sunday Times CD of the week, 10.2.08)
...This CD is a knockout. Sensitive expression of the texts is paramount. With two to three voices to a part there’s an appreciable sense of shaping which comes from Stile Antico creating the interpretation as an ensemble without conductor. You won’t find a better demonstration of just how beautiful and yet also powerful these pieces are. (Michael Greenhalgh, MusicWeb International Recording of the Month, April 2008)
It's not easy to conceive and successfully impose a concert-performance dynamic on the formal, square structures of Tallis' Psalm-tune settings, bringing an air of excitement to these essentially functional church pieces. In most circumstances these works merely sound, well, like formal and square hymns, albeit very well crafted with strong, sturdy melodies and occasionally interesting harmony. But if you've been paying attention to the choral music scene lately, you know to expect that Stile Antico - a conductorless British ensemble of 13 (or so) young singers - is more than capable of giving exciting new life to old music, and that's exactly what we get here. There's energy and vitality in the singing that gives unusual substance and power to these very short (most around one minute or less), text-centered settings.
Of course, it was a very good programming idea to intersperse the brief Psalm-tunes with some of William Byrd's most substantial motets. Ne irascaris Domine, Infelix ego, Laetentur coeli, and Tribulationes civitatum stand among Byrd's greatest works - indeed, among the most valued treasures of choral music. As such, they are oft-performed and recorded - and not surprisingly Stile Antico's renditions join with the very best in the catalog. Although I'm not so much a fan of this ensemble's very slow tempo for Ne irascaris, these singers certainly have the control to generate and sustain the necessary momentum - and the beautifully-wrought ending (a trademark of this group!) negates all earlier reservations regarding tempo. Laetentur coeli (no holding back here!) is a highlight worthy of special mention - an example of both Stile Antico's remarkable ensemble balance and sensitive linear interplay and the exceptionally complementary sound that captures these details so clearly and vibrantly. Not to be missed! (David Vernier, Classics Today 10/10 review, 25.1.08)
The British tradition of Renaissance choral music, part of the Early Music
revival of the 1970s, remains unchallenged, but groups such as Monteverdi Choir
and Tallis Scholars need a new generation to invigorate their pioneering
skills. Stile Antico, a superb mixed-voice group... are the answer.
Heavenly Harmonies, their second disc, is of Tudor Church Music, combining Psalms by the Protestant Thomas Tallis (in English) with Latin settings by the Catholic William Byrd. The contrast between austere Tallis and rich, poignant, recusant Byrd makes a strong programme, cleanly recorded in London's Gospel Oak Church. The singers work without a conductor, achieving ideal balance and intimacy. Seek them out. (Fiona Maddocks, Evening Standard CD of the week, 16.1.08)
Stile Antico’s first disc was rapturously received all around and became a bestseller. The second disc is equally imaginative in programming music of the same period, 16th-century England... This vocal ensemble renders everything in high style, with the acoustics of All Hallows in Gospel Oak blooming in Super Audio surround sound. This disc is another triumph for the new ensemble of young singers. Be sure to hear it, and watch for their next production. (J.F. Weber, Fanfare Magazine, March 2008)
Stile Antico's performances are ideal. For one thing, in music whose key characteristic is its response to text, they articulate the words so clearly that you can understand every word... And they sing the words with the expression the composers intended. Sample Byrd's anguished Infelix ego (Unhappy am I), to a text by the Italian radical Girolamo Savonarola of a hundred years before Byrd's time: the sequence of questions, "Where shall I go?," "Where shall I turn?," To whom shall I flee?," "Who will have pity on me?" have an impact rarely matched among Renaissance recordings. The sound is marvellously clear, far beyond the norm for this kind of thing... A top-notch job all around that can be recommended equally to collectors of English choral music and listeners just beginning to understand the style worlds of Renaissance
music. (James Manheim, All Music Guide, posted March 2008)
...when the music making is this sublime, give me more! The director-less Stile Antico offers simply stunning performances here; their phrasing and intonation are beyond reproach, and an absolutely stunning multichannel recording is the icing. This is a reference quality choral recording; one of those rare discs where you can actually pinpoint each voice in the superb soundfield. Not to be missed – very highly recommended! (Tom Gibbs, Audiophile Audition, five stars, 28.2.08)
Gloriously polished and vibrant... a work of astonishing textural complexity and intense
emotional impact, qualities superbly revealed in this powerfully focused and purposefully
paced performance... wonderful music and singing of considerable distinction. (Marc Rochester,
International Record Review, February 2008)
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