Splendour and devotion in Renaissance England
Church of St Cross, Winchester
Saturday 20th May 2023, 7:30pm
Cambridge Renaissance Voices return to the glorious acoustic of St Cross to celebrate the 400th anniversary of William Byrd, England's greatest composer of the late Renaissance. Negotiating the religious divisions of his time, Byrd served the Protestant Elizabeth I while preserving his own faith as a Catholic. It is in the Latin motets that he gave the most sublime expression to the spiritual anguish experienced by those who found themselves religious exiles in their own country, tempered by a serene beauty that suggests a form of consolation in their own devotion. In this concert, Byrd's choral masterpieces are set in the context of sacred music by contemporary composers from Tudor and Stuart England.
