Taverner’s Missa Gloria tibi trinitas is one of the great glories of Tudor music, and Taverner gave it pride of place in the manuscript preserving the repertory from his time as the first Choirmaster at the new Cardinal College (now Christ Church) in Oxford. The drama of this music comes from the striking alternation of sections scored for the full six-voice choir and intricate solo sections. Our concert reveals how this dramatic aspect might have sounded in original performances by the largest Tudor church choirs: we achieve this by combining the forces of Owen Rees’s two ensembles: the professional vocal consort Contrapunctus (singing the solo sections) and the Choir of The Queen’s College, to provide combined forces of some 40 singers, matching the Tudor Chapel Royal. Other works in the programme include Taverner’s supremely beautiful Leroy Kyrie and Audivi vocem de caelo.

‘Superbly sung’ – BBC Music Magazine
‘Seriously, startlingly good: the intimacy of The Cardinall’s Musick, the rich, glowing tone of The Sixteen and the textual drama of Stile Antico.’ – Gramophone