Friday, 28 March 2025 at 8:00 pm
The Golden Renaissance
Boston Early Music Festival
St Paul’s Church, Cambridge, MA, United States
Reviews
The Observer reviews Tune thy Musicke
Nicholas Kenyon, The Observer (29 January, 2012)
We are, perhaps, in a wood-panelled Elizabethan hall, where in the early 17th century the family of a large house gather for their private prayer. Voices and viols mix in harmony, ranging from the familiar simplicity of Thomas Campion’s “Never weather-beaten sail” to the elaborate verse anthem by Orlando Gibbons’s “See, see the word is incarnate”, the whole story of salvation condensed into six superb minutes. Tallis, Tomkins and Byrd are here, but the revelation is the little-known John Amner, whose “A stranger here” reaches a climax of rare dissonant intensity, powerfully sung. Another triumph for the superb Stile Antico ensemble and Fretwork.