‘Stile Antico’

They say that the Devil has all the best tunes, and it’s hard to disagree on hearing this enthralling programme. As Stile Antico traces the blurred boundary between sacred and secular music in the Renaissance, we encounter risqué, racy chansons transformed by Lassus, Morales and Victoria into devout Masses and Magnificats, and ribald folksongs worked into prayerful polyphony by Dufay and Taverner. Most shockingly of all, and in spite of the Church’s disapproval, it was none other than the Cardinal of Milan who commissioned sacred texts to be fitted to some of Monteverdi’s most frankly erotic madrigals, crowning this survey of three centuries of superb music.