Stile Antico celebrate Shakespeare in Malvern

Stile Antico first came to my attention when they won the audience prize at the York Early Music Festival Young Artists Competition back in 2005 - they're now recognised as one of the world's finest vocal groups, with many critically acclaimed recordings under their collective belts.  There's an opportunity to hear them at Malvern Concert Club on Thursday 24 November, in a programme celebrating Shakespeare's 400th anniversary.  In my opinion, a concert not to be missed!

Reviews of a similar programme they performed at this year's BBC Proms said "Stile Antico brings a fresh, intelligent and collaborative approach to vocal polyphony...The beauty of the tone was exceptional,...stunning vocal selections" (Classical Source) and "Robert Ramsey’s ‘Sleep, fleshly birth’...was stunning. Ramsey, director of music at Trinity College Cambridge, is probably a name less familiar to us than that of Morley, Byrd, Tomkins et al: his dramatic madrigal in six movement, Dialogues of Sorrow upon the Death of the Late Prince Henry, is only partially extant, but ‘Sleep, fleshly birth’ is almost certainly a tribute to the Prince. Stile Antico milked the chromatic piquancy for all it was worth, without the slightest hint of mannerism, and this performance has sent me scurrying to find recordings of Ramsey."  (Opera Today)