Old Masters, Vol. 1 – on Spotify

This double album of live recordings and studio discoveries has been lovingly remastered, largely from early digital “old masters” – bootleg minidiscs, studio mastertapes, and various broadcasts. Old Masters charts the journey of a distinct sound that began to emerge at New College, Oxford at the beginning of the 1990s, and over the next quarter of a century has resounded abroad, bearing fruit notably in the series of early music firsts – the “milestones of Western music” recorded in the early 21st century for Naxos Records, and in multiple albums of works by the ensemble’s founder-director, Antony Pitts – harmony recognized early on as “unique, strong, and above all, spiritual” and represented on the second “bonus” volume of this album. Classic hits from old masters of the 14th to the 17th centuries – Allegri (this version of his Miserere includes a staggering ten top Ds sung by Joanna Forbes L’Estrange), Browne, Byrd, Mundy, Purcell, and Tallis…

Old Masters, Vol. 2 – on Spotify

This double album of live recordings and studio discoveries has been lovingly remastered, largely from early digital “old masters” – bootleg minidiscs, studio mastertapes, and various broadcasts. Old Masters charts the journey of a distinct sound that began to emerge at New College, Oxford at the beginning of the 1990s, and over the next quarter of a century has resounded abroad, bearing fruit notably in the series of early music firsts – the “milestones of Western music” recorded in the early 21st century for Naxos Records, and in multiple albums of works by the ensemble’s founder-director, Antony Pitts – harmony recognized early on as “unique, strong, and above all, spiritual” and represented on the second “bonus” volume of this album. Classic hits from old masters of the 14th to the 17th centuries – Allegri (this version of his Miserere includes a staggering ten top Ds sung by Joanna Forbes L’Estrange), Browne, Byrd, Mundy, Purcell, and Tallis…