The Cardinall's Musick: Performance Diary

Concert: Spitalfields Music Summer Festival (Thursday 13 June, 7.30 pm)

Spanish composers in the second half of the 16th century produced some of the most expressive music ever written. Tomás Luis de Victoria’s sumptuous eight-voice Missa Alma redemptoris mater is at the heart of this programme of Spanish music, alongside Sebastián de Vivanco’s thrilling Magnificat and rare works by Juan Esquivel and Alonso Lobo.

Box office tel 020 7377 1362 or book online at https://www.spitalfieldsmusic.org.uk

Date: Thursday 13 June, 7.30 pm    Venue: Christ Church, Spitalfields, London E1 6LY »

Concert: Church Stretton Arts Festival (Saturday 27 July 2013, 7.30 pm)

This programme of English music explores the background to the Gunpowder Plot.  Every year in the UK on the 5th November, bonfires and fireworks are lit in remembrance of an event that, had it gone ahead as planned, would have been the most serious act of terrorism the world had seen. The Plot was the attempt of a group of radical Catholics to blow up the Houses of Parliament and at the same time murder all but one of the Stuart royal family. Our story, with narration, starts with James I’s arrival in London, the welcome he and his family received and the difficulties they had coping with English polite society. The second half opens with the Catholic conspirators, their attempted plot and its aftermath. Music by the great composers of the day includes three different genres from the superlative William Byrd, masterful seven and eight-part pieces by Thomas Tomkins and Peter Philips plus a few ditties to remind us that life was not always so serious in the first decade of the 1600s!

Booking opens in the spring at http://www.strettonfestival.org.uk

Date: Saturday 27 July 2013, 7.30 pm    Venue: Concord College, Acton Burnell near Shrewsbury, Shropshire

Concert: York Minster Chapter House (Tuesday 24 September 2013, 9.15 pm)

Part of the English Music in Yorkshire series of private concerts organised by Martin Randall Travel.

Henry VIII was crowned in 1509, over five hundred years ago, but his character is almost as alive and interesting to us today as it was to those who lived through his reign. This programme presents a setting of the Gloria and three votive antiphons by Robert Fayrfax (1464–1521), Richard(?) Sampson (fl. c. 1516) and John Taverner (c. 1490–1545). Also included are a rarity by Philip van Wilder, one of Henry’s most trusted musicians but now a forgotten figure, and a piece by the king himself. The programme culminates with a sparkling setting of the Magnificat by the young Thomas Tallis (c. 1505–1585).

For details, contact Martin Randall Travel Ltd, tel 020 8742 3355  http://www.martinrandall.com

Date: Tuesday 24 September 2013, 9.15 pm    Venue: York Minster Chapter House, York