Gramophone Magazine
Awards Issue 2022
Editor's Choice

Marian Consort

1. Praeter Rerum Seriem
2. Regina Caeli
3. Aspice Domine
4. Ave Spes Nostra, Dei Genitrix
5. Salve Regina
6. Heu Me, Domine
7. Emendemus in Melius
8. Sancta Maria
9. Sancta Mater, Istud Agas
10. Inviolata, Integra Et Casta Es

Following its digital debut on Linn presenting a triptych of works by Josquin des Prez, Vicente Lusitano and Roderick Williams, The Marian Consort now focuses its attention on the central figure of this trio, the ‘Portuguese’. In his own time an important music theorist, Lusitano’s reputation and music have both been neglected in ours. As so often with musical figures of the Renaissance, many of the details of his life remain unknown. We can, however, be reasonably confident that he was the first published composer of African heritage. Referred to as ‘pardo’ in one eighteenth-century source, his only surviving printed book of compositions, the Liber primus epigramatum, was issued in Rome in 1551. True to its pioneer spirit as ‘brilliant discoverers, and exponents, of rare repertoire’ (The Observer), The Marian Consort has recorded a carefully chosen programme of these striking and impressive unjustly forgotten works.

"This will be a revelation to many...one senses a clarity of purpose that goes beyond sonic beauty, though that also is there in spades: the female singers and Rory McCleery’s alto shape their lines beautifully." - Gramophone Magazine, Awards Issue 2022.