The Flowering of Genius
Guerrero, Tallis, Byrd, Victoria
Music from a turning point in history .... the short-lived marriage between Mary Tudor and Philip II of Spain, although barren and doomed, resulted in a glorious flowering of Anglo-Spanish music which saw the greatest musicians from the two nations meeting and working together.The music for a flamboyant Christmas Day ceremony in St. Paul's Cathedral in 1554 was a celebratory focal point of an extraordinary resurgence of the Catholic faith in England, fuelled by hopes, soon to be dashed, that Mary was pregnant.

5 star performance and recording *****

"The Sixteen’s sound is distilled, ethereal - hard to imagine a more sublime performance." BBC Music Magazine

The Sixteen
Harry Christophers

COR16001