MUSIC
Vox Fidelis: Byrd 400: Mass for Five Voices
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2023
1:15 PM
Gotham Early Music Festival Midtown Concerts
St. Malachy’s Church In Person & Live Stream
239 West 49th Street, Midtown, Manhattan
While composer birth year observances can be tiresome, they’re more than welcome when the composer is otherwise underperformed. Like William Byrd (performed a lot for a Renaissance composer — but the whole lot of them is underperformed). A composer of real structural imagination and rigor (almost to the point of austerity), massive melodic gifts, and unprecedented expressivity. And a great backstory: a recusant Catholic working in a Protestant court. Is the Mass for Five Voices, one of Byrd’s “private” Catholic compositions for undercover performance, his greatest achievement? Maybe not — but it’s a great achievement.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: In person, I’m not gonna even tell you what El Mil Sabores puts on their Torta Loca sandwich. You have to see it for yourself. Streaming at home, it’s a little early in the day, but let’s have a Last Word (with at least one ingredient made by Catholics): pour 3/4 oz. each of Gin, green Chartreuse, Maraschino liqueur, and lime juice into an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Stir. Strain into a chilled Martini glass or coupe.