It has taken some time for Chandos to proceed from “The Early Byrd” (8/95) to the second volume of this well-planned series, which looks at the composer’s work not by category but by period – in this case the 1580s. Whether “The Caged Byrd” (I suppose the pun was irresistible) is an altogether apt title is perhaps open to question, in view of his gloriously free and virtuoso technique; but it probably refers to the stress in which he felt himself as a committed Catholic, with ties to others in Europe of his faith (exemplified here by overlapping settings of Psalm 136, the second half by Byrd, the first by his friend Philippe de Monte), while remaining a loyal subject of his Protestant queen. The majority of the items here, except for the ebullient, light-footed Laudibus in sanctis, are more or less overt protests at what was seen as harsh injustice. The most outspoken are the richly contrapuntal song Why do I use my paper, which laments the execution of a Jesuit priest, and the elegies for Mary Tudor, Crowned with flowers and lilies and the brief The noble famous Queen; but only slightly veiled in their application to the political scene are the motets Deus, venerunt gentes (beautifully sung here) and Domine, tu iurasti.
I Fagiolini, who adopt period pronunciation of English and Anglicized pronunciation of Latin, present their items with a single voice to each part, which makes for an easy fluency (for example in Vigilate) and flexibility (but is their O quam gloriosum too brisk?): just occasionally, at fortes, their tone hardens. Of the solo singers, the most notable is the countertenor Robin Blaze: the Concordia viols lend clean support, but are balanced too loudly in Why do I use my paper. On a copy of a 1660 one-manual Italian harpsichord Sophie Yates contributes four solos, from the Pavan named for Sir William Petre (another Catholic) – which she has recorded previously on the virginals (Chandos, 12/95) – and the cheerfully bright Rowland, welcoming home from Flanders the victorious Lord Willoughby, to the splendidly inventive big set of variations on Walsingham, played with a strong rhythmic sense and appreciation of its contrapuntal interweaving and its cross-rhythms.'