William Byrd: Complete Consort Music cover

William Byrd: Complete Consort Music

Composer
Released

William Byrd, a serious candidate for the title of Greatest English Composer Ever, is known primarily for his religious music. But he was also an important composer of secular songs, keyboard works, and consort music. This disc brings together everything he wrote for a consort of viols, all of it performed magnificently by the Phantasm ensemble. The vinegary tone of the viola da gamba gives these works a lovely and somewhat ghostly flavor.

Rick Anderson

Recommended by

Suggestions
Schubert cover

Schubert

Anja Linder, Laurent Korcia
Locke: Consorts Flat and Sharp cover

Locke: Consorts Flat and Sharp

Matthew Locke, Phantasm
Elena Ruehr: Six String Quartets cover

Elena Ruehr: Six String Quartets

Stephen Salters, Borromeo String Quartet, Cypress String Quartet
Three-Mountain Pass cover

Three-Mountain Pass

Van-Anh Vo, Kronos Quartet
Fasch: Quartets and Concertos cover

Fasch: Quartets and Concertos

Ensemble Marsyas, Pamela Thorby, Peter Whelan