Presto Editor's Choice
January 2019

Stile Antico

Dowland: Flow my teares (Lacrimæ)
Byrd: Tristitia et anxietas
Dering: Factum est silentium
Dowland: In this trembling shadow cast
Philips, P: Gaude Maria virgo
Philippe de Monte: Super flumina Babylonis
Byrd: Quomodo cantabimus
Philips, P: Regina cæli lætare
Watkins, H: The Pheonix and the Turtle
White, Robert: Lamentations

The regime of Queen Elizabeth I dealt harshly with supporters of the old Catholic religion. Torn between obedience and conscience, some of England’s most talented musicians - Philips, Dering and Dowland - chose a life of exile abroad. Others chose to remain in spiritual isolation in England, comparing themselves to the exiled Israelites in Babylon.

Amongst them were Robert White, whose five-part Lamentations are one of the glories of English music of any age, and William Byrd, whose anguished Catholic music is referenced in Shakespeare’s enigmatic poem The Phoenix and the Turtle, vividly set by Huw Watkins especially for Stile Antico.

"The conductorless British vocal ensemble are in their element with this thoughtfully-assembled programme exploring music by Elizabethan composers who found themselves literally or figuratively estranged from their homeland due to their Catholic sympathies; Robert Dering’s Factum est silentium showcases their springy agility and immaculate ensemble, whilst Huw Watkins’s new setting of Shakespeare’s The Phoenix and the Turtle had me craving more contemporary music from this source." - Presto Classical, January 2019.