WILLIAM BYRD (1539/40–1623)

 

The Complete Keyboard Music

 

Davitt Moroney - harpsichords, muselar virginal, chamber organ, clavichord, Ahrend organ of l’Église-Musée des Augustins, Toulouse

 

The Gramophone Award-winning artist Davitt Moroney spent more than fifteen years planning this unique and momentous project.

 

As an authentic complete survey of this music, six different instruments were used for the recording - two different harpsichords, muselar virginal, clavichord, chamber organ, and the Ahrend organ at L’Église-Musée des Augustins, Toulouse, France (where the huge and high nave creates an echo that lasts for nearly fifteen seconds, not unlike the acoustic at Lincoln Cathedral where Byrd was the organist and master of the choristers).

 

‘Surely definitive and a triumph for all concerned … the quality of the interpretation flows flawlessly throughout the series … probably the most significant issue I have yet reviewed. There are so many glorious details in his playing that it is hard to know where to begin in its praise’ (Gramophone)

‘The production values beggar description. Absolutely stunning. A landmark release as musically eloquent as it is scholastically fastidious’ (Classic CD)

 

Hyperion 7cds CDS44461-7