St George’s, Bristol (March 24), St Barnabas Church, Oxford (March 30), Howard Assembly Rooms, Leeds (April 4), Wigmore Hall (May 17), Brighton Festival (May 18), St David’s Festival (June 7), St Magnus Festival (June 27), Fotheringhay Church (July 7), Winchester Festival (July 10), Stondon Massey (September 2), Lammermuir Festival (September 21), Canterbury Festival (October 20), Arundel Cathedral (November 3). 

Further details will be published soon.

“This is music of the highest quality which has the power to move both the heart and the mind. I find William Byrd’s music to be the most impassioned of all composers across Europe and into the New World. This touring programme gives The Cardinall’s Musick an opportunity to take Byrd around the country, to showcase his passion and to place him in context as the most important musician of the Tudor age.”  Andrew Carwood

Fabrice Fitch, writing in Gramophone, says “Carwood and his singers make a case for Parsons… it’s worth buying this disc just for this object lesson in word painting….  The Cardinall’s Musick are at their best in this repertoire, and their performances have confidence and authority…  Parsons certainly deserves the hearing that Carwood’s musicians afford us, so this addition to the catalogue is very valuable”.  Editor James Inverne has gone further, making the disc ‘Editor’s Choice’ in the November issue.

In BBC Music Magazine, Kate Bolton give the recording 5 stars, saying: “Having previously explored English polyphony at the extremes of the 16th century – Cornysh, Fayrfax and Ludford at the beginning, Byrd at the end – The Cardinall’s Musick now bridges the gap with the enigmatic mid-century composer Robert Parsons.  He lived through some of the most turbulent years of England’s religious and political history, and his life was tragically cut short when he drowned at a young age.  So, while there are some serene works here, with soaring melismatic lines that hark back to the music of the Eton Choirbook, most of these pieces are sonorously scored for low voices and peppered with bitter dissonances, giving them a dark, plangent quality.  Director Andrew Carwood draws earthy, visceral performances; the ensemble’s virile sound and Parsons’s sinewy polyphony are a far cry from what some critics describe as the ‘whitewashed’, English choral tradition.  Carwood and his singers highlight the inherent drama of Parsons’s style, notably in O bone Jesu, with its changing textures, brilliant canons and expressive dissonances.  The basses resonate magnificently in Peccantem me quotidie, in Holy Lord God Almighty and in the hauntingly austere Libera me, while, by contrast, the monumental Magnificat sounds radiant.  Perhaps the crowning glory of the disc is the final Ave Maria, the slow and poignant unfolding of which echoes long in the memory.  Hyperion’s detailed recording, swathed in the glowing acoustic of the Fitzalan Chapel, Arundel Castle, enhances these seraphic performances.”

Rebecca Taverner from Choir and Organ notes that “the recording has deep perspective and clarity with the sequence of works, mostly scored for low voices, given fluid impassioned readings, with vibrant bass sonorities providing and almost instrumental foundation… tonal beauty, impeccable ensemble and blend”.

The Cardinall’s Musick give sublime performances of some of the composer’s most sumptuous choral works, from the remarkably sophisticated Magnificat to the dramatic O bone Jesu. As demonstrated in their previous recordings, their resonant, pure-toned singing is the perfect advocate for such exquisite polyphony. The ensemble’s seemingly effortless and magical performance of the glorious Ave Maria is the perfect conclusion to an enlightening recording.

The Cardinall’s Musick are at their best in this repertoire, and their performances have confidence and authority…  Parsons certainly deserves the hearing that Carwood’s musicians afford us, so this addition to the catalogue is very valuable” Fabrice Fitch, Gramophone EDITORS CHOICE

This was the fourth time the group had won the Early Music Award at the ceremony, an award selected annually by critics for The Gramophone Magazine and various members of the industry, including retailers, broadcasters, arts administrators, and musicians. The Recording of the Year, however, was selected by a panel of critics from a shortlist of the sixteen category winners, which meant the Cardinall’s Musick beat the Royal Opera House, Glyndebourne Opera, and the HallÉ to the top prize!

It seems clear that the Recording of the Year award is keen to acknowledge the achievement of the entire series not just this final volume. Gramophone have been fulsome in their praise – ‘one of the most important recording projects of the last couple of decades … just as exciting as when Harnoncourt and Leonhardt finished their Bach Cantatas’. ‘A musical experience of vivid imagination, awe-inspiring concentration and, finally, resolution in a series that has become a glory of the early music catalogue’.

The award points to twenty years of music making by a loyal group of singing friends who by this thirteenth volume were able to approach the music with a ‘sense of soaked commitment and lived-in purpose’. It also marks the musicality, inspiration and imagination of Andrew Carwood, as well as the fine production standards of Martin Haskell, Jonathan Freeman-Attwood and Hyperion Records. Finally, it recognises William Byrd as ‘one of the greatest composers of all time, not just of England but of anywhere else’. The award and these recordings provide a fitting tribute to this most intellectually and emotionally satisfying composer.

this is all really exciting stuff and should be heard by anybody who cares about music of the late-16th century. David Fallows of Gramophone

Classic FM Magazine made the recording “Editor’s choice” saying “Carwood nails it – again” with reviewer Andrew Stewart going on to say that “these performers capture the creative confidence of Rome’s composing community in the decades either side of the 16th century’s turn” with performances of “exuberance and ensemble excellence… this album works like a finely tuned time machine. It’s hard to imagine how its contents could be better served on disc”.

Simon Heighes of International Record Review says that the “wonderful build-up in sonority is deftly managed by the singers” with “utter transparency giving way to rich harmony… thoroughly recommended”.

Berta Joncus of BBC Music Magazine (“March Choice – Choral & Song”) says about The Cardinall’s Musick that “the vocalists use declamation to emote, transporting the listener from sorrow to transcendent joy” adding that “this recording’s breadth of moods, devices and styles is refreshing”.

Stephen Pritchard of The Observer says “The chief delight of this new treasure from The Cardinall’s Musick is not the titular Miserere but the Missa Cantantibus Organis, an extraordinary, 12 part mass by seven composers, written as a tribute to Cecilia, patron saint of music … sung here with the brilliance and clarity we have come to expect from this outstanding ensemble”.

Claudine Nightingale of Choir&Organ says that “The Cardinall’s Musick offers a sumptuous body of sound that revives the well-known Miserere and brings to life the multiple-author Mass”.

Paul Gent of The Telegraph says that “The Cardinall’s Musick perform it with their usual refinement”
You can hear The Cardinall’s Musick performing an exciting Roman programme, including works by Palestrina and Allegri, at the Wigmore Hall on June 24th this year. For more info, visit Wigmore Hall’s website.

Gramophone have made it their Editor’s Choice in the October issue, editor James Inverne commenting that ‘The Cardinall’s Musick have only just completed their wonderful Byrd project and here they are with this first-rate exploration of the music of Guerrero … the singers show verve and polish in equal measure’. Reviewer Fabrice Fitch goes on to say ‘Andrew Carwood’s singers respond with an equal measure of buoyancy and vigour … anyone interested in the siglo de oro will regard this as essential listening’.

Andrew Clements in the Guardian also loves the new recording saying the pieces ‘are delivered with the combination of superb ensemble, and perfectly characterised vocal lines that is the persistent hallmark of this outstanding group; the sound is rich, full and gently resonant’.

‘the leading exponent of Renaissance music, retaining the essential quality of individual vocal timbres that contribute to a refined, characterful mix and with a polish that is second to none’ going on to say that ‘the entire disc, with various shorter pieces as complements, is captivating in its fluency and expressive power’ Geoffrey Norris (Telegraph).

‘sung with breathtaking subtleties of light and shade … do not wait until next Easter to acquire this disc!’Early Music Today

Music-web International have rounded things off commenting that ‘Once again we are indebted to Hyperion and the Cardinall’s Musick, this time for a fine recording …. The singing, recording and presentation are every bit as good as one would expect from this source’.