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SONGS OF RELIGIOUS UPHEAVAL: BYRD, TALLIS, TYE – MUSIC FROM REFORMATION ENGLAND

Wednesday August 2, 2017 | 7:30pm (Pre-concert talk 6:45pm)
Christ Church Cathedral 

Acclaimed European ensemble Cinquecento focuses on the emotionally charged and harmonically rich Latin Church music of William Byrd, his teacher Thomas Tallis, and Christopher Tye during the height of the English Reformation – a time of conflict and religious upheaval. The programme includes Tallis’ incomparable “Lamentations of Jeremiah.”

Comprising five professional singers from five European countries, Cinquecento takes its name from the Italian term for the sixteenth century. The pan-European structure of the ensemble (its members are from Austria, Belgium, England, Germany and Switzerland) harks back to the imperial chapel choirs of the sixteenth century, whose members would have been chosen for their musicianship from Europe’s most prized musical establishments. Since 2006, Cinquecento has been recording for Hyperion. They are one of the world’s finest vocalist ensembles specializing in Renaissance polyphony.

This concert will be preceded by a free screening of Playing Elizabeth’s Tune at 4pm. In this 65 minute documentary by the BBC, Charles Hazlewood explores the life and music of William Byrd, Catholic Composer for a Protestant Queen, and the troubled times that produced some of the most intimate and passionate sacred music ever written.