Byrd: Consort Songs

Here is a fine recording to draw the listener into the richly layered world of Queen Elizabeth I. William Byrd?s ?consort songs? tell of courtly love; Sir Philip Sidney?s demise in battle becomes an eloquent lament; an old woman tumbling down amid a flurry of human skulls represents contemporary desires for freedom of speech; moral temptations are likened to a storm-tossed ship; and a hymn to the Muses is inspired by the death of Thomas Tallis. The longest single piece here is Byrd?s famous Lullaby, ?My sweet little baby?, one of the most popular of his works during the composer?s lifetime, and one which has been a deserving favourite ever since. Despite Byrd?s domestic-musician-flattering preface in which he claimed these works were designed to persuade ?everyone to learn how to sing?, this music makes the highest vocal demands: demands far exceeded in the glorious singing of Robin Blaze.