On Thursday 13 March, Tenebrae Consort marked the release of their new disc “Medieval Chant and Tallis Lamentations” with a performance at St. Bartholomew the Great, London. Performed by six singers, the music for the recording is drawn from the Salisbury Cathedral tradition – renowned for its ritual excellence, observation and performance – in the centuries before the Reformation. The Compline for Holy Week is enhanced with Tallis’ Lamentations – some of the most poignant and intense polyphonic settings of sacred texts using in Passiontide. These settings for five lower voices prove not only the depth of Tallis’ devotion to the ‘old faith’ and the Catholic rite but also his mastery of the polyphonic art, and cements his rightful place as one of the greatest composers of the English Renaissance. Described by the Guardian as “Beautifully balanced, the singers were fully alive to the delights of the florid polyphony”, the programme is being performed at music festivals across the UK during 2014. For full details of performances, please click here.