This musical portrait of London takes in all sorts of performance situations, from the courtly and aristocratic to more popular entertainments, not to mention a few snippets of sacred music performed instrumentally. The English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble are joined by Mark Chambers and a continuo group including virginalist Robert Howarth and “wind all-rounder” Bill Lyons, whose brainchild this recording is. A wider impression of soundscape is of course difficult to conjure up, and there are no street cries here; but Byrd’s The Bells is, for once, programmatically appropriate. A jaunty tone is set by Parsons’s Songe called Trumpetts; thereafter, the choice of pieces also runs the gamut of moods, with a more melancholy tone set by Semper Dowland, Semper Dolens and Fortune my foe, whose tune was often used for similarly doleful texts.

These are enjoyable and polished performances, albeit rather reserved. One’s only complaint is that the truculence of city life, which must surely have been still greater than today (or at any rate perceived more keenly), is not more keenly felt. It’s partly a matter of programming (the seamier side of the young metropolis, mentioned in the booklet-notes, is only hinted at in the music), but also one of tone. Elizabethan pronunciation enhances the feeling of exoticism, but musically speaking the relative lack of extroversion is puzzling in comparison: the cornet parts, for example, are rarely ornamented. Blame the inhibiting effect of the studio, perhaps, for these are seasoned and committed performers.