John Taverner

The Missa Corona spinea is a kind of treble concerto, packed with mind-blowing sonorities. If ever there was music to exemplify Shakespeare's 'Music of the Spheres', it is here, and especially in the two ecstatic treble gimells. The first performance, probably in front of Henry VIII and Cardinal Wolsey, must have been an astonishing occasion.

John Taverner (1490-1545) and William Byrd (1540-1623) born a generation apart, both hailed from Lincolnshire, and left a collection of choral works that rank (with that of Thomas Tallis) as some of the finest of its age, or indeed any other. Both men worked in turbulent times, the older Taverner grew up during the reign of Henry VII, and became Informator Choristarum at Cardinal College, Oxford, Cardinal Wolsey's new college in the university. Here Taverner recruited 16 boys and 12 men for the choir.

Tavener wrote the extraordinarily moving …Depart in Peace… following the death of his father. Written for soprano, violin, tampura and strings it features Eastern elements and a glittering setting of the Song of Simeon ; Patricia Rozario and Clio Gould are outstanding soloists in this beautiful piece. Clio Gould’s perfectly pitched and emotive violin playing takes centre stage in My Gaze is Ever upon You and Tears of the Angels . John Tavener, who passed away in 2013, was described as one of ‘ the very best creative talents of his generation ’ by The Times; these compositions are among his finest.

What you have here is a well-performed sampling of music from England in the early 16th century. Because of the way the program is organized, the listener's mind may try to organize it into something more coherent than that, but it may not succeed. The centerpiece is the Western Wind Mass of John Taverner, which is broken up with secular pieces and then followed by music that might have been heard at the court of Henry VIII.

John Taverner, the most outstanding English composer of his time, was appointed Informator Choristarum of Cardinal College, Oxford in 1526, with the charge of establishing the foremost choral institution in the land. He succeeded magnificently and the tradition continues to this day at what is now known as Christ Church, Oxford, with acclaimed director , renowned for his strength in 16th century choral music, at the helm. Darlington and his forces – 16 boys and 12 men, unchanged since the 1520s – pay homage to their predecessor with a programme of his liturgical music written at Oxford. While there, Taverner had to write music to be performed virtually round the clock and he rose to the challenge using great imagination.

Owen Rees leads early-music consort Contrapunctus alongside The Choir of The Queen’s College, Oxford in performances of John Taverner’s masterwork, the Missa Gloria tibi trinitas. A virtuosic work, it has pride of place in the Forrest-Heyther partbooks (in the Bodleian Library in Oxford), which it has been variously argued originated at Cardinal College or at the Chapel Royal.It might well have been heard on Trinity Sunday in the chapel of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey’s palace at Hampton Court.

The Gesualdo Six literally made its name with performances of Carlo Gesualdo's Tenebrae Responsories, but that's not the British vocal consort's only specialty. Each of the singers was trained in the English choral tradition, and sacred works of the 16th and 17th century are close to their hearts. This 2018 Hyperion release is a brief survey of motets by Thomas Tallis, William Byrd, Thomas Tomkins, John Sheppard, Robert White, John Dunstaple, Thomas Morley, John Taverner, William Cornysh, Orlando Gibbons, and Robert Parsons, which represent the changing theological and liturgical aspects of English religion in the Renaissance. The ensemble, conducted by Owain Park, sings with evenly blended tones and an extraordinary harmonic richness, notwithstanding the assignment of one voice to a part and the exposed polyphony that sometimes creates an austere effect. Also quite noticeable are the cross-relations that add poignant dissonances to the counterpoint, as in Tallis' Loquebantur variis linguis, Taverner's Quemadmodum, Gibbons' O Lord, in thy wrath rebuke me not, and Parsons' Deliver me from mine enemies. This album was recorded in Trinity College Chapel, Cambridge, where The Gesualdo Six gave its first performances, and the sound is enhanced by vibrant acoustics that give the group a radiant aural halo.