The Marian Consort, Part 2

NOTE: All of the music on this program is from the Marian Consort directed by Rory McCleery.

For more information:  http://marianconsort.co.uk/

II. An Emerald in a Work of Gold: Music from the Dow Partbooks. Delphian CD DCD34115.

For their second Delphian recording, The Marian Consort have leaved through the beautifully scripted pages of the partbooks compiled at the close of the sixteenth century by the Elizabethan scholar Robert Dow, to present a sequence of some of their brightest jewels. Sumptuous motets, melancholy consort songs and intricate, harmonically daring viol fantasies are seamlessly interwoven, all brought to life by seven voices and the robust plangency of the Rose consort of Viols in the chapel of All souls College, Oxford – where Dow himself was once a Fellow.

‘From William Mundy’s exquisite Sive vigilem to Robert Parson’s wonderful Ave Maria setting, the ensemble sings with eloquence and expressive finesse.’ The Sunday Times

‘McCleery elicits performances that glow with golden purity and soul.’ ***** The Scotsman

‘The concluding Ave Maria by Robert Parsons is superb, the final ‘Amen’ attaining to genuine emotion but without the saccharine reverence that this much-recorded piece can attract’ Gramophone Magazine
William Mundy Sive Vigilem