Stile Antico - Sing with the Voice of Melody (2015)

To celebrate their 10th anniversary, the twelve members of Stile Antico present twelve tracks of their personal favourites, drawn from five centuries of glorious repertoire. Each member has written a paragraph explaining their choice and why they love to sing it. The official 10th Anniversary launch concert will be June 5th at Spitalfields. 'Stile Antico has made an outstanding contribution to our international musical life over the past ten years. It has been a huge pleasure to watch the ensemble develop and thrive, year after year. Long may their vital music- making continue to flourish, opening our ears to glorious repertoire in an intimate setting. It has been such an exciting decade and the best is probably yet to come!' John Gilhooly OBE, Director, Wigmore Hall; Chairman, Royal Philharmonic Society 'Dearest Stile Antico! Congratulations on your ten, magnificent, harmonious years! May you continue to bring your glorious voices in beautiful song to the world, which so desperately needs it! BRAVI!' Joyce DiDonato 'Stile Antico are one of the foremost groups presenting early (and sometimes new!) music. Their attention to detail is superb, and they always bring an intense and thorough liturgical understanding to everything they do. This disc is a survey of the past ten years of music-making, ranging from the austere to the ecstatic. To another ten years, and many more!' Nico Muhly, composer

The singing is beautifully tidy and expressive, and the CD is a useful way to decide which of their CDs you would like to explore further. --D. James Ross Early Music Review, June 2015

**** 'This compilation disc is an ideal introduction to their work: both to their refreshing approach to programming and to the refined but vigorous quality of their sound … While treasures still remain to be discovered from the Renaissance era, they sing the McCabe so brilliantly one hopes that in their next decade they embrace more of the new too.' --Fiona Maddocks The Observer, 21st June 2015

Performance: ***** Recording: ***** 'This a cappella ensemble offers polished, expressive singing in a miscellany of sublime 16th and early 17th century polyphony. John McCabe s anguished and dissonant Woefully arrayed adds contemporary grit.' --Kate Bolton-Porciatti BBC Music Magazine, February 2016