Jordan Wong, Bertie Baigent, Edmund Goodman, Julia Sinclair, Choir of Jesus College Cambridge, Mark Williams - Byrd / Britten (2017) [Hi-Res]

The connection between William Byrd and Benjamin Britten is explicitly set out in the notes to the Signum release by annotator Philip Borg-Wheeler: both were composers "whose lives and beliefs estranged them from the British establishment." Britten, furthermore, wrote a good deal of sacred music in styles for which Renaissance polyphony was one of the sources. Can you sense a kinship of spirit in a program devoted to these two composers specifically? That's up to the individual listener, but many programs set music of the 20th century against Renaissance standards, and this one offers a particularly focused version of the contrast. Sample one of the movements of the Britten Missa Brevis, accompanied by organ like his other works here. It was written for a choir with a boy soprano section having a bit of sinew, much like the Choir of Jesus College, Cambridge, here under director Mark Williams. Several of the Byrd pieces are quite strong, especially the meditative Quomodo cantabimus. Signum's engineers, working in the choir's home of Jesus College Chapel, achieve impressive clarity; enough, in fact, to display the rough spots in armor of the young choristers. On balance, though, this is an enjoyable English choral album with a concept that few, surprisingly, have hit on before.