Reviewed by Steven Whitehead

Amongst the many endeavours funded by the Carnegie Trust (marking its centenary in 2013), was the publication and editing of 'Tudor Church Music' in 10 large folio volumes of music, with 50 performing pieces published individually. This had a considerable impact on the revival of this music: for the first time a significant body of the greatest Tudor compositions became accessible to scholars, performers and listeners, having previously languished in cathedrals, museums and colleges. It also inspired a further generation of English composers after its resurrection including Howells, Britten and Vaughan Williams. Here Stile Antico presents a varied selection of the finest pieces from 'TCM' in a programme centred around William Byrd s masterful five-part mass. Stile Antico is an elite ensemble of young British singers, working without a conductor, each contributing artistically to the musical result and producing some of the finest ensemble a cappella singing you could ever wish to hear. In addition to Byrd we get pieces from the other leading composers of the era: Orlando Gibbons, Thomas Tallis, and John Taverner as well as the less well known (at least to this reviewer) Thomas Morley and Robert White. The whole is a superb introduction the Tudor Church Music and a very nicely presented package and impeccably sung. Essential listening.

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