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| Musicians getting ready for the opening live performance of Hatfield Home Music Competition below the watchful eye of Queen Elizabeth I within the Marble Corridor |
Music which pleaseth myne ear: Thomas Morley, John Dowland, William Byrd, Tobias Hume, William Lawes, John Coprario; The Sixteen, Fretwork, Pleasure Smith, Eligio Luis Quinteiro, Harry Christophers; Hatfield Home Music Competition within the Marble Corridor
Reviewed 8 October 2027
A fascinating and enlightening night of music by Byrd and his contemporaries mixing viol consort, vocal ensemble and instrumental dances full with pavans for harp consort and a few of Byrd’s consort songs
When the primary Lord Salisbury constructed Hatfield Home (accomplished in 1611), he employed numerous musicians together with a viol live performance to carry out in the home. The current Lord Salisbury can’t fairly run to that, however this 12 months marks the fifteenth anniversary of the Hatfield Home Music Competition which was based with cellist Man Johnston because the inventive director. This 12 months’s competition celebrates not simply that anniversary, however Lord Salisbury’s eightieth birthday, and naturally the four-hundredth anniversary of the demise of John Dowland.
For the opening live performance of the competition, at 5pm on Thursday 8 October 2026 in Hatfield Home‘s Marble Corridor (one of many first Lord Salisbury’s authentic interiors now presided over by the ‘Rainbow Portrait’ of Queen Elizabeth I) we returned to the early seventeenth century for Music which pleaseth myne ear, a programme of music by William Byrd and his contemporaries. Music that may have been round on the time of the home’s completion. Harry Christophers and members of The Sixteen (Katy Hill, Alexandra Kidgell, Elisabeth Paul, Mark Dobell, Oscar Golden Lee, Ben Davies, Rob Macdonald) had been joined by the viol consort Fretwork (Emilia Benjamin, Christopher Terepin, Joanna Levine, Sam Stadlen, Richard Boothby), harpist Pleasure Smith, and lutenist Eligio Luis Quinteiro for a programme that moved between unaccompanied part-songs and devotional songs, viol consorts, dances and extra concerted items.
The music of William Byrd was central to the night and the sheer number of his output was obvious. Right here was sacred music in Latin and English each liturgical and meant for personal devotions, secular music on classical topics and for pure leisure, and instrumental music together with a pavan in honour of the primary Earl of Salisbury. As Stephen Johnson identified in his programme notes, the best way Byrd wrote to “please the powers at be while providing a message of comfort and hope to these with ears to listen to it” reasonably resembles the balancing act the Dmitri Shostakovich needed to undertake.
We started with Thomas Morley’s vigorous madrigal I really like, alas, I really like thee which was stuffed with rhythmic felicity and included a phrase setting that reasonably came to visit as ‘I really like, a lass, I really like thee’ which can properly have been intentional!. John Dowland’s elegant dance, My Lord Willoughby’s Welcome House launched us to the stunning sound of Eligio Luis Quinteiro’s lute and Pleasure Smith’s interval harp. This latter had a reasonably luminous sound which made the music very seductive – what else was welcoming Lord Willoughby residence, one questioned. The Sixteen returned with one other side to the vocal music, one thing sacred, most likely a devotional tune designed to be sung at residence, Byrd’s severe and reasonably ethical Retire my soul.
The ultimate devices within the combine had been the viols. Richard Boothby and Sam Stalen (on bass viols) introduced out the plangent high quality in Tobias Hume’s Candy musicke with its two interwining traces. Subtitled ‘Earle of Salisburies favoret delight’, there was a melody line however the piece was all about texture.
Thereafter the varied completely different groupings intertwined in numerous methods making a programme that was assorted and splendidly satisfying. The unique Lord Salisbury hardly ever had fairly so many individuals listening to ‘his’ music however the programme evoked these instances. And the acoustics of the Marble Corridor are fantastic wonderful for seventeenth century music.
The Sixteen contrasted the outward dealing with melancholy of Dowland’s Weep no extra unhappy fountains together with his livelier Up merry mates. There was the elegant melancholy of Byrd’s Come woeful Orpheus, very severe in its intent, reasonably extra intimate and private was the three voice vocal work In winter chilly, one thing to be sung at residence. And households like that of the Lord Salisbury would have had singers; servants had been typically employed for the musical abilities and would sing alongside members of the family. Byrd’s This candy and merry month of Could was a vigorous delight stuffed with infectious cross rhythms
Eligio Luis Quinteirio’s lute gave us the intimate melancholy of Dowland’s Robin, while Quinteiro was joined by Pleasure Smith’s harp for Dowland’s vigorous My Lord Chamberlain, his Galliard.
Fretwork’s efficiency of Byrd’s In nomine a 5 introduced out the distinctive sound of the viols but this was recognisably the identical voice as the opposite works by the composer within the programme. There was one thing reasonably toe-tapping about Byrd’s Pauana, The Earle of Salisbury and Galiardo with a dance-inspiring liveliness to it. John Coprario (Cooper) is a composer related to the primary Lord Salisbury’s Hatfield, and his Illicita Cosa, a fantasia for 5 viols, broke no guidelines but sounded intentionally (and delightfully) bizarre.
Of nice curiosity had been two items by William Lawes for harp consort (harp, lute, treble and bass viols) . Each had been pavans, one on a bass theme by J Cormacke and the opposite on a bass theme by Coprario. Each had been reasonably like units of variations, the place the interaction of voices was paramount. However of great curiosity was the best way the plangent higher and decrease viol traces sat across the luminous infilling of the harp. I used to be accustomed to these harp consort works on disc however this was the primary time I had the pleasure of listening to them stay.
The Sixteen joined with Fretwork for Byrd’s Have mercy upon me O God with the darkish, chestnut sound of the viols contrasting with the readability of the voices (solo alto Elisabeth Paul after which tutti). The piece units an adaptation of Psalm 51, nearly definitely for personal devotional use. Like a lot of the Byrd within the programme this got here from Psalmes, songs and sonnets of 1611. Byrd’s Ah, foolish soul featured a soprano solo (Katy Hill) and viols, her expressive, severe vocal line contrasting with the cellular counterpoint of 5 interweaving viol traces in hanging method. Consort songs such of this are a uncommon pleasure and a uncared for a part of trendy live performance repertoire.
We ended with one thing for everybody. Byrd’s consort tune O God that guides the cheerful solar with verses sung by soprano solo (Katy Hill), then choral choruses, all accompanied by viols plus harp and lute. It contrasted the intense intent of the soprano solo with the vigorous counterpoint of the viols, however then rhythmic liveliness crept in and solo soprano and viols echoed one another, passing little rhythmic motifs round. A whole and utter delight, and the kind of work solely potential when the correct folks come collectively.
This was a fascinating and enlightening night. Listening to the correct kind of music in the correct performances in the correct place. Heaven and an exquisite option to have fun all these anniversaries.
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