Western Wind

Andrew Parrott and his Taverner Choir & Players turn to music of their namesake alongside works by his contemporary King Henry VIII, an exceptionally musical monarch, and two composers of the previous generation, William Cornysh and Hugh Ashton. With Taverner’s Western Wind mass as its corner-stone, this recording takes its lead from the unashamedly secular character of that work and ventures beyond the chapel door to explore the parallel world of courtly vernacular song and instrumental music.

Reviews

‘perhaps the disc’s most satisfying interpretations are the two responds for high and low voices respectively, Audivi vocem and Dum transisset sabbatum (I), which seem to me on a par with the Taverner Consort at their very best: the latter in particular combines that trademark incisiveness with superlative solo singing. Finally, the sound recording successively juggles a wide range of distributions, from harpsichord to choir, with no apparent discontinuity.’

Full review at: https://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/taverner-western-wind

This disc is also unique in the way it embeds Taverner’s Mass in Tudor secular music. Wedged between Mass movements are dance, song, and keyboard solos, performed by leading artists like Stephen Devine (harpsichord) and Emily Van Evera (soprano). We are given a view of the repertory that inspired Taverner, not least the Western Wynde song itself, performed unaccompanied by Van Evera. In the final track Parrott gives us this melody as his own 50-second arrangement for viol and mute cornett, exemplifying his powers to reinvent, and draw us into, the musical world of Henry VIII.

Full review at: https://www.classical-music.com/reviews/taverner-choir-players-western-wind/