Benjamin Britten - William Byrd

Byrd | Britten

The Choir of Jesus College, Cambridge

Label: Signum Classics
Format: CD
Barcode: 0635212048122

Catalog number: SIGCD 481
Releasedate: 03-02-17

- Continues series with Choir of Jesus College Cambridge – popular collegiate choir.
- advertising support in March issue of BBC Music Magazine (published 23rd February)

Led by Mark Williams, the Choir of Jesus College, Cambridge continue their critically-praised series of recordings on Signum with this new recording of works by British composers Benjamin Britten and William Byrd. Byrd and Britten, their respective careers separated by about three hundred and fifty years, share one very significant characteristic. They were both, in quite different ways, outsiders. As a devout Catholic existing within an alien environment - a state which ultimately viewed Catholicism as the equivalent of sedition - Byrd was obliged to pursue a kind of double life, expressing his spiritual exile in music of emotional intensity. Like Byrd, Britten became highly regarded by the establishment for his artistic achievements, but reservations regarding his homosexuality prevented his complete acceptance. Both his pacifism and his sexual orientation made him an outsider.

O Lord, make thy servant, Elizabeth our Queen