Siglo de Oro; Patrick Allies director

England’s devoted followers of time-honoured Roman Catholic rituals were forced into the shadows by evangelical Protestants in the wake of Henry VIII’s Reformation. Musicians wedded to the old faith found ways to praise God with settings of ancient liturgical texts, helped by Elizabeth I’s strong personal affection for the Latin language and her religious conservatism. The vibrant young voices of Siglo de Oro chart the era’s confessional changes and continuities with a programme of sublime polyphony by three composers whose collective work spans a century of religious revolution.