Orchestra Of The Renaissance - The Marriage of England and Spain (2020)

Glossa has always supported innovative perspectives on early music. For this reason, in 1998 it encouraged an excellent group of British singers and an instrumental ensemble led by the Frenchmen Jean-Pierre Canihac and Francis Mercet, all under the directorship of Richard Cheetham and going by the name of Orchestra of the Renaissance, to take on something as “brazen” as interpreting the polyphony of John Taverner with instrumental accompaniment. This stimulating program, which includes his Missa Gloria tibi Trinitas, portrays the nuptial ceremony of Maria Tudor and Philip of Spain at Winchester in 1554.The result is breathtaking and deeply moving.

The ensemble closed ranks in later projects such as Guerrero’s Requiem and Morales’ Assumption Mass, both released by Glossa with great commercial success. Here however, we want to pay tribute to the ensemble’s beginnings with this exquisite edition, another jewel from the new Glossa Platinum series.