The Cardinall's Musick

The durable British vocal group The Cardinall's Musick is known for its impeccable performances of English vocal music and other works of the era. The Cardinall's Musick also performs music as far forward as the present day. The group has a large catalog of recordings on the ASV and, later, the Hyperion labels, and these have won several major awards. The group released a series of albums devoted to the music of Thomas Tallis in the 2010s, including Tallis: The Votive Antiphons (2018). The Cardinall's Musick was formed in 1989. Uniquely among early music ensembles, it was the creation of a professional singer, Andrew Carwood, and a musicologist, David Skinner; both were lay clerks (professional cathedral singers) when they founded the group, and both remained associated with it for many years. Carwood remained director as of the mid-2020s. The "Cardinall" referred to in the name was England's influential Cardinal Wolsey (ca. 1473-1530). At first, the group was all-male, but women's voices were added for a series of recordings of music by Nicholas Ludford that began on the ASV label in the early '90s. The group recorded prolifically for ASV until the mid-2000s decade. Often, The Cardinall's Musick performs as an octet, plus director Carwood; its lush style, once described by the London Telegraph as erotic, contrasts sharply with the pure sound often favored in English cathedral music. The Cardinall's Musick has performed often around Britain and sometimes beyond. The group regularly performs sold-out concerts at London's Wigmore Hall and is a staple of programming at the Three Choirs, Aldeburgh, and Spitalfields Festivals, among other summer events. The Cardinall's Musick has appeared at the National Concert Hall in Dublin and the Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ in Amsterdam. In 2013, the ensemble opened the BBC Proms with a performance of Thomas Tallis' 40-part motet Spem in alium, together with a new work by Cheryl Frances-Hoad. The Cardinall's Musick focuses on Renaissance music but sometimes performs 20th and 21st century music as well. A highlight of the group's recording catalog is a cycle of albums devoted to the music of William Byrd, begun on ASV and continuing on Hyperion after the ensemble moved to that label in 2005. The cycle concluded with the album The Byrd Edition, Vol. 13: Infelix ego in 2010. The Cardinall's Musick has also recorded multiple albums devoted to the music of Thomas Tallis in the 2010s. As of the mid-2020s, the group's most recent recording was Tallis: The Votive Antiphons (2018), but the ensemble has continued to perform, with a holiday program, "Mirabile mysterium," scheduled for Wigmore Hall in December 2024. By that time, the group's recording catalog comprised some 45 items. ~ James Manheim, Rovi