Taverner: Missa Corona spinea, Dum transisset Sabbatum I and II

The Tallis Scholars return one again to the music of John Taverner with the Missa Corona spinea. A challenging mass setting, the magnificence of its conception can be heard in both the overall structure of the movements and the detail within the vocal writing. Taverner felt able to ignore the natural boundaries of the text and experiment with scoring. It is believed to have been a commissioned work, but the occasion and commissioner's identity remain unknown. Taverner set Dum transisset Sabbatum twice. The first has always been the more famous, but the second is just as engaging and offers quite a different interpretation of the possibilities. With this program, Peter Phillips and The Tallis Scholars give us a repose from the noisy and insistent world in which we live.