Monday, 25 May 2026 at 7:00 pm
Polyphonic Postcards
Tage alter Musik Regensburg
Dominikanerkirche St. Blasius, Regensburg, Germany
Reviews
The Observer enjoys Media Vita
Fiona Maddocks, The Observer (10 January, 2010)
This recording of works by Tudor composer John Sheppard (1515-1558) is the fourth disc by young British ensemble Stile Antico, and the best yet. Their purity of sound, with a fullness achieved by only 14 voices, reveals Sheppard’s rich counterpoint. Despite this extraordinary finesse there’s no self-conscious beauty, only intelligent, vital simplicity. Sheppard is one of the more mysterious of “English Renaissance” composers. The meditative, 25-minute central work, “Media Vita” (“In the midst of life we are in death”), dark with agonising dissonances, is a heartfelt quest for consolation, and a formidable masterpiece.