Between 1588 and 1627, the isolation of English musical culture was broken by the influx of Italian music and composers, and during this period a beautiful collection of Madrigals with English words and composers was created. The acclaimed Quink Vocal Ensemble (Kees-Jan de Koning, bass, Harry van Berne, tenor, Paula de Wit, soprano, Machteld van Woerden, soprano, and Corrie Pronk, alto) bring us 18 perfectly-recorded madrigals from this period, three from Thomas Morley, two from Francis Pilkington, two from Thomas Tomkins, two from Thomas Bateson, two from William Byrd, one from John Farmer, four from John Wilbye, and two from Thomas Weelkes. This music is bright and romantic, with a lively grace and harmonic clarity, the result of probably the first English musical "craze!" |
