O my Son! The genius of Cornysh and Weelkes

For Lent we present a programme of emotive, penitential music as we celebrate the anniversaries of two great English composers.

William Cornysh, who died in 1523, was one of the most important exponents of the dazzlingly florid ‘Eton style’. His Stabat Mater is rarely sung: a turbulent, coruscating canvas of colour and feeling, it is the antithesis of the music of his direct contemporary, Josquin.

Thomas Weelkes, who died in 1623, was a giant of the Jacobean period, though his career was blighted by alcoholism. He excelled in writing madrigals as much as in sacred music. In Laboravi we find him channelling continental influences to great effect, while his celebrated lamentation, When David heard, may have been part of a great national outpouring of grief for the sudden death of Prince Henry, heir to the English throne, in 1612.